How did Sheffield Wednesday owner Dejphon Chansiri make his money? | OneFootball

Sheffield Wednesday’s promotion hopes look all but over as they suffered defeat in the first leg of the League One play-offs.

Peterborough United thrashed Wednesday 4-0 on Friday night, meaning the Owls have a mountain to climb in the reverse fixture this Thursday.

The 2022/23 campaign has been like no other; despite reaching 96 points in the league, Wednesday missed out on automatic promotion to the Championship.

However, their inconsistent form has seemingly gone into their play-off campaign, as the Owls were demolished by Posh.

It is looking likely that Sheffield Wednesday will be in League One once again next season, but irrespective of which league they are in next season, Wednesday are likely to be busy in the upcoming summer transfer window.

Who is the current Sheffield Wednesday owner?

The Owls are currently owned by Dejphon Chansiri, a Thai businessman. He bought the club in January 2015, after a consortium led by Chansiri himself bought a 100% stake in the club for a reported £37.5 million.

It has been an up-and-down eight years in charge of the club, as the Premier League was the aim set by Chansiri; however, that only seems like a distant dream now.

Wednesday have been a side that has struggled at the foot of the Championship, except for a spell under Carlos Carvalhal, where the play-offs were achieved.

But in 2021, the Owls went further away from the Premier League as they suffered relegation to England’s third tier.

There was a shadow cast over their relegation to League One as the club suffered a points deduction. The club initially received a 12-point deduction for breaching the League's Profitability and Sustainability Rules. However, this was reduced to 6 points, which was still enough to relegate the side to League One.

Since then, the club have been trying to get out of League One, and as shown this season, it is not as easy as people think, despite the fact that Wednesday are a big footballing side and have financial backing for that level.

Not only on the pitch as his period of ownership been rough, but off it as well as Chansiri has been the subject of much abuse from Sheffield Wednesday supporters due to the running of the football club.

Wednesday will be hoping that they can make a good go of their second leg in the play-offs and cause a big upset at Hillsborough this Thursday.

How did Dejphon Chansiri make his money?

As previously mentioned Chansiri is a Thai businessman and he comes from a family who have made their money in seafood through their company Thai Union Group, which includes John West, Fisho and Chicken of the Sea.

The company is headed by Chansiri’s dad who acts as chairman, while his brother is also president of the business. Chansiri’s family are listed at 41 on Forbes’ Thailand’s 50 richest people of 2019.

Chansiri speaks very limited English and admitted himself that before buying Sheffield Wednesday he had very limited interest in football and had no experience of the industry.