Leicester vs Sheffield Wednesday: Fan protests planned as crisis club starts Championship campaign

Telegraph

7 hours ago

The word 'crisis' is probably bandied about too often in sports journalism but when it comes to the current plight of Sheffield Wednesday there is no more apt a term.
Under the ownership of Dejphon Chansiri, this great Yorkshire institution have slipped into financial and organisational chaos over last five years, and arrive at the start of the season amid a backdrop of unpaid wages, a partly-closed stadium, a fully-closed training ground, a stand-in manager and fan dismay that is fast turning into fury.
Today's visit to Leicester City – themselves no strangers to financial strife but not on the same scale as Wednesday are experiencing – for the first day of Championship seems bound to be overshadowed by supporter protests.
The 3,000+ visiting supporters have vowed not to take their seats at the King Power Stadium until five minutes after kick-off and there are plans to fly a plane over the ground carrying a message to Chansiri that will no doubt be along the lines of 'do one'.
Thai Chansiri and the club have been charged for not paying players, which has led to an exodus of first-team players as they have become free to terminate their contracts, although captain Barry Bannan has stayed on and has attempted to rally the players while also supporting the non-football staff who have not been paid.
As Telegraph Sport's Mike McGrath wrote in his special report on the plight of Wednesday this week, the club is so broke they could not even afford sock tape during pre-season.
Coach Henrik Pedersen has a squad of just 15 players, Wednesday are under a transfer embargo and the supporters' group has issued a warning about the impact the club's crisis is having on the mental health of its fan base.
Today is a rare case of the action on the pitch arguably being less important than that off it, but we will keep you up to date on both.