Sheffield Wednesday are facing further disciplinary action from the EFL and a possible walkout of players after failing to pay all the squad’s wages for the third time in four months.
The Guardian has learned that while some of the club’s younger players received their June salaries on Monday, not all of Danny Röhl’s squad were paid, putting the club in breach of EFL regulations and at risk of losing players on free transfers.
Wednesday are understood to have contacted the affected players expressing their apologies and pledging to pay them in full, although they did not guarantee a payment date.
Under Fifa player status regulations, any player who has not received their contract salary on the due date for two successive months can terminate their contract by giving their employer notice in writing, although the club then have 15 days to regain control of their contract by making payment.
Wednesday would then have two weeks to pay sufficient salaries to avoid a mass walkout, although the club will face EFL action regardless. The club were banned last week from paying transfer fees until January 2027 for exceeding “30 days of late payments” to players in the previous 12 months, having also paid salaries late in March and missed payroll seven times in the past four years.
The EFL is monitoring the situation closely and is expected to refer Wednesday to an independent commission, with a longer transfer embargo, fine and points deduction among the sanctions open to it. The Professional Footballers’ Association is also involved and providing support to the players.
Röhl is also expected to leave and was not at the training ground when most of the players reported back last Thursday for pre-season. All of the German’s coaching staff are out of contract from Tuesday, and he is understood to be negotiating his own severance terms.
The club’s owner, Dejphon Chansiri, is willing to sell Wednesday and has received offers from at least two US consortiums, but neither has met his valuation. The Thai businessman has spent hundreds of millions of pounds on Wednesday over the past decade, but his source of funding has dried up as a result of the declining profitability of his family’s food empire, the Thai Union Group.
The EFL and PFA declined to comment.
