Portsmouth's former League One foes face £2m HMRC bill as owner begs fans to ‘save club’

Pompey fans dug deep into their pockets to save their beloved club from liquidation in 2013.

Today, the owner of Sheffield Wednesday, Dejphron Chansiri, is asking Owls supporters to do the same as he encounters clash flow problems.

The Championship outfit, who sealed promotion from League One last season, have fallen behind with HMRC payments and are at risk of not being able to pay full-time staff this month.

In an exclusive interview with our sister site The Star, Chansiri admitted the money he needs 'is not in the bank’ right now and has called on Wednesday fans to ‘save their club’ out of their own pocket. The Thai businessman has requested supporters who ‘call themselves owners’ contribute £2m to settle the current financial concerns. They would then be paid back with interest when his cash flow problems were sorted.

Chansiri confirmed Wednesday’s HMRC debt - which was due to be paid on Monday, October 23 - remained outstanding, and for every day without payment the club edges closer to a multiple-window transfer embargo. The club were put into a registration embargo by the EFL last week. for late payment of the fee.

Staff at the Hillsborough outfit are due to be paid their latest wages today (the final day of the month). The club owner has said part-time employees and those on lower incomes will be paid correctly. But those earning higher salaries on both the playing and non-playing side of the club are at risk of being underpaid or not paid.

‘If 20,000 people gave £100 then it’s £2m, and it’d be clear — so we can finish it. That would cover everything, HMRC and the wages,’ said Chansiri.

‘That would need to be done before November 10th if they don’t want to pass the 30 days, but that means that there can be no next time. It’d need to be before to make it safe — if it was on the fifth then there would be 10 days left… If we were to hit 30 days then we’ll get a ban for three windows.’

The Owls owner stated that with no cash in the bank, he is unable to pay the outstanding fees. But he categorically denied he is deliberately withholding funds in order to assert his power and financial importance. Chansiri also stressed that he is ‘not broke’, insisting the problem lies within his personal cash flow.

‘All over the world there is a shortage of cash flow because of the economy, of Covid, of Russia, Israel. This is normal in business now and I need to accept that because the club relies on my money. The people who owe me money in business have not paid on time because they are short of cash flow too. It is a domino, it will affect more people. What can I do? We prepare but the money has not come. If they do not do that, what can I do? This situation is happening all over the world.

‘Those who say it is their club, when it was clear we had an issue with HMRC, people came out and said ‘Chairman, you need to take responsibility to pay’, that if we don’t pay we have to sell ‘our club’ — why do they say ‘our club’? I never heard any fan say ‘we need to prepare to save our club’, they just say I have to leave. It’s funny, they say they are owners and I am custodian.

‘We try to generate money for the club as best as we can. We need to try to get money but the negative fans don’t help. I am not blaming fans. I am explaining they don’t help. People [potential sponsors] don’t know us, they just see us on social media, so why are they going to sponsor us when they just see rubbish all the time? We need fans in bad times as well as good.’

When the Portsmouth Supporters’ Club (PST) saved the Blues from extinction in 2013, 2,300 shareholders raised around £2.5m through individual pledges of £1,000.

In 2016, the PST unveiled a 'Wall of Fame' at Fratton Park which13] features the names of all the shareholders who financially contributed to save the club.