All the punishments Sheffield Wednesday are facing as player wages go unpaid again

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Things are not looking good off the pitch for Sheffield Wednesday right now, with unpaid player wages potentially leading to massive punishments from the EFL.

The team are performing well under Danny Rohl this season, and the Championship play-offs are still not quite out of reach for Sheffield Wednesday with seven games to go.

However, the club’s owner, Dejphon Chansiri, continues to attract criticism from fans for a number of reasons.

From ‘scandalous’ Steel City derby ticket prices, to a lack of ambition that could cost the Owls their highly-rated manager, Chansiri is not the most popular man in S6, and the situation is getting worse by the day.

• READ MORE: Is this the best Sheffield Wednesday XI of the 21st century?

Sheffield Wednesday facing fines and possible transfer embargo

This week it emerged that Sheffield Wednesday players had not been paid for March, due to Chansiri not receiving payments of his own on time that would fund the wages for his staff.

Fans are at the end of their tether with the situation, and Chansiri has been urged to sell the club by journalist Henry Winter, who branded the whole thing an ’embarrassment’.

Now, we look into the larger repercussions that could come from this problem if it is not resolved swiftly.

First of all, Wednesday are heading for another transfer embargo as a result. That’s not necessarily the end of the world right now, given we are outside of the transfer window anyway, but it does have a knock-on effect.

Clubs in the EFL have a 30-day limit (between July 2024-June 2025) for being under embargo before things get worse. Wednesday have already accrued roughly two weeks of that from their past discrepancies.

Once the embargo hits the 20-day mark, clubs are forced to pay a fine of either £6,000 or 5% of the outstanding sum due to be paid (whichever is greater).

If and when they pass the 30-day mark, though, things get considerably more serious. As per the EFL, clubs in breach of that limit would not be permitted to “pay or commit to pay any transfer fee, compensation fee or loan fee” and that restriction would apply for three whole transfer windows.

Essentially, Chansiri has to pay up and get the club out of this mess and ensure the 30-day limit is not hit before the period resets on July 1st, or the Owls would be unable to sign players this summer, next January, and the summer of 2026, too.

In short, disaster. Rohl would absolutely abandon ship, with Southampton already very interested in his services. Plus, the great progress made by the team this year would be undone if they are not able to recruit and build on that ahead of the 2025/26 campaign.

• READ MORE: Sheffield Wednesday managers ranked by win percentage, as Danny Rohl lags behind Owls legends

The EFL has precedent for points deductions, Sheffield Wednesday at risk

If fines and transfer embargos weren’t bad enough, Sheffield Wednesday should also be very worried about the prospect of a points deduction heading their way if things continue like this.

The EFL has punished other teams for similar situations in the past, with a three-point deduction the norm as per the guidlines.

Reading failed to pay players in 2023, and the league sought to inflict the club with a four-point deduction with a further four-point suspended penalty. In the end, the Royals were hit with a one-point penalty in August, followed by a three-point deduction in September, and a further two-point deduction in February the following year.

You only have to look at the sorry state of Reading’s situation now to know that things could get far worse for Wednesday if they follow that path.

Wigan Athletic paid players late in March and May of 2023, and were hit with a four-point penalty for both incidents, meaning they started the 2023/24 campaign on minus eight points. Not ideal.

League Two side Morecambe FC were also hit with a three-point punishment for failing to pay players in March 2023.

Suffice to say, the EFL will not hang around and wait for Sheffield Wednesday to fix this issue. And, as repeat offenders, we know the league will be ready to send massive punishments their way.

The last time the Owls had a points deduction, they were relegated from the Championship. That simply cannot happen again this time.