The multi-millionaire Thai owner of English Championship football team Sheffield Wednesday has called upon fans to raise £2 million (S$3.3 million) to "save their club".
Pyramid challenge
The English midlands team was a founding member of the premier league, but subsequently fell into the depths of the English football pyramid after getting relegated in 2000.
The team has fallen as far as League One, which despite the name is actually the third tier of English football.
However, at the end of the 2022/23 season, the team was promoted to the Championship (the second tier) when they finished third and subsequently won the promotion playoffs.
The current owner of the club is Thai businessman Dejphon Chansiri, whose family owns the Thai Union Group, a seafood company that is one of the world's largest producers of canned tuna.
Chansiri took over the club in 2014, according to Reuters, and has overseen the club bouncing between the Championship and League One.
We ballin
This looks set to continue as the club languishes at the bottom of the league with six points from 14 games.
This has led to management changes, and predictably, loud complaints and protests from some members of the fanbase.
These include tennis balls being thrown onto the pitch, and fans insulting Chansiri on social media.
Chansiri appeared fed up with the abuse, issuing a lengthy rebuke of the fans, accusing them of being ungrateful for the money that he had personally put into the club.
Saying that while critique was acceptable, Chansiri added in a statement to the Wednesday website on Sep. 29:
"But no one has the right to cross the line or the right to try and cause damage, throw insults, or go to my family which has happened again, which I cannot accept"
Pony up
In the same statement, Chansiri said that he would no longer "inject any more money into the club if I am being treated unfairly".
He made good on that threat when on Oct. 27, the BBC reported that the club was under registration embargo, meaning it could not longer register players without prior consent, because of money it owed the the British tax agency, HM Revenue and Customs.
In an interview with the local Sheffield newspaper The Star, Chansiri claimed that issues in his personal business life meant that he no longer had the money to pay for the club's debt.
While part-time and 'casual' staff will be paid, staff with higher salaries, including players and coaching staff, might not get paid.
He then issued a challenge to the club's fans, saying that if 20,000 fans each contributed £100 (S$166), the £2 million (S$3.3 million) debt would be cleared.
Wednesday's average attendance is about 25,000, according to transfermarkt.com.
Biting back against fans who had called him a "custodian" of the club, and referred to the fans as the "real" owners instead, he said this was a chance for them to save their club.
Only if fans were able to raise the money would they "have the right" to demand he leaves, Chansiri opined.
The Star reported that Chansiri said that any fan who put money into the club would be "paid back with interest" when cash flow improved.
He also repeatedly denied that he was deliberately withholding funds to impress upon fans his importance to the club.
If the club does not pay the HMRC debt, a one and a half season transfer ban will be imposed, preventing it from signing new players.
Proper whinging
Understandably, Wednesday's fans did not take well to the challenge, with the club's supporters' trust saying a fit and proper owner would not do so.
Adding salt to the wound is the fact that Wednesday increased season ticket prices for the 2023/24 season, with The Star warning that the club could have the most expensive season tickets in the league.
But some fans were still willing to defend Chansiri, with one saying that fans were simply "whinging".
However the controversy has attracted the attention of the local Member of Parliament, who said that it was Chansiri's responsibility to deal with the debt, not the fans.
Top image via Sheffield Wednesday