But since losing that last, though, Chansiri’s credibility and fans’ confidence have been dented steadily. HMRC late payments, players’ and staff members’ delayed wages, and transfer bans have taken the wind from the club’s sails. There was doubt over whether their opening fixture of the campaign against Leicester on Sunday would take place, but it is known that players will complete the match.
Now, with a skeletal squad, enforced stand closure and desperate financial prospects, supporters have spoken to the BBC about what they believe Chansiri’s inability to sell is costing the club, the city, and its people. We’re all suffering,” says Hillsborough season ticket-holder Gaz Robinson. “It’s been awful for everyone – mentally draining.”.
“We need the chairman to make sense, to listen to how we feel, how the city feels, and make the right choice. In Chansiri’s initial years in office after taking over in 2015, Wednesday splurged as they aimed to get back into the Premier League for the first time since 2000.
But in the 2020s, the spending level has dropped back considerably, debts and creditors have grown strongly, and while Chansiri has said he would be willing to sell the club, there has been no takeover.
That has left fans fretting that they will not even have a club to support if matters do not improve shortly. Everything has gone wrong,” says Natalie Briggs, landlady of The Park pub, a few minutes’ stroll from the stadium, for the last 10 years.
“Twelve months ago, some individuals were 50/50 about whether he [Chansiri] stays or leaves. But now it’s reached a point where everybody wants him out. He says he’s a family man, but he can’t notice that he is ruining the largest family of them all – the family he purchased. He chose to do this. And where’s he now? Nowhere to be found.
“We’re the ones who are still here. We’re standing up. We’re crying out for our players. We’re supporting them 100%. And he’s just run off like a rat from a sinking ship. The effects of the crisis on those fans who have supported the club for decades are brutal, and supporters are eager to confront Chansiri directly.
“There have been bad times in the past, but this is the worst of my life,” 84-year-old former ambulance driver Bill Button explains, having attended his first game at Hillsborough 79 years ago. It’s driving me mad. I do not know where Chansiri is going. We are not going to buy a new shirt simply because the money is going into his pocket. You’ve got to hit his pocket. Otherwise, it will make no difference.”
Button’s season ticket resides in the disabled area of Hillsborough’s North Stand, now closed after the Safety Advisory Group declined to renew its safety certificate pending renovation work. The club has yet to tell Bill anything about what is going on with his season ticket. I’ve called up loads of times and just get hold music,” he states. “They can’t even provide you with an answer to anything. I am so sick of it. I get down low, feel low. It’s not good for me whatsoever. Anyone who knows me knows that attending Wednesday is all I am. I’m just at my wit’s end.”
