Point deduction rules as Sheffield Wednesday players go unpaid again
Stoke City’s Championship rivals have admitted issue with payment of player salaries
Sheffield Wednesday have failed to pay all players’ wages for March and will automatically face a transfer embargo.
Wednesday, who sit 12th in the Championship – five points short of the play-offs and 10 ahead of Stoke City, have blamed the issue on cashflow problems at owner Dejphon Chansiri’s businesses. The family of Chansiri, who took over the club 10 years ago, runs Thai Union Group, the world’s largest producer of canned tuna.
Players’ wages had previously gone unpaid in the final months of the 2020/21 season before they were settled in June 2021. In October 2023, Chansiri asked fans to raise £2 million to help pay an outstanding debt to HM Revenue and Customs and cover wages.
In November last year, Wednesday were placed under a registration embargo by the EFL regarding a debt to HMRC.
When Reading failed to pay players in 2023, it was reported the non-binding EFL guidelines stated that clubs could face a three point deduction for each late payment breach, although the league sought a four-point penalty in that case, with a further four suspended. They ended up having one point taken away.
Wigan were docked four points twice by an independent disciplinary commission in 2023 for paying players late in March and May of that year, meaning they started the 2023/24 season on minus eight points.
