Sheffield Wednesday: Football finance experts issues concern over potential John Textor takeover bid | OneFootball

Football finance expert Kieran Maguire has spoken about John Textor's interest in Sheffield Wednesday, and his words may worry fans of the club.

Football finance Kieran Maguire has spoken about the possibility of John Textor buying Sheffield Wednesday, and his words may concern the club's supporters.

Sheffield Wednesday are in crisis, with wages going unpaid and players and staff both at the point of leaving the club and a transfer embargo having been applied over the late payment of wages to staff and HMRC.

It's all a far cry from the end of last season when, under Danny Rohl, they finished in a creditable 12th place in the Championship.

Rohl's departure from Hillsborough has felt inevitable since the end of the 2024-25 season, though he hasn't yet formally exited the club.

But the absence of the manager has become the least of Wednesday's problems since the end of the season, with the club's position seemingly becoming increasingly precarious by the day.

Football finance expert raises John Textor concerns as reports of Sheffield Wednesday interest emerge

One party in particular that has some interest in saving Wednesday from their precarious position is former Crystal Palace owner John Textor, with the Sheffield Star revealing last week that the American was "considering" making a move for the stricken Owls after selling his shares in Palace.

Speaking to BBC Sheffield about Textor, football finance expert Kieran Maguire believes that despite Wednesday being in ruin, Textor may not be the right fit for the club based on what has been going on at one of his other clubs in the form of Lyon, who have been relegated to the second tier of French football due to financial irregularities.

"John Textor has caused issued at Lyon as we know - there were demonstrations about him yesterday," Magure said.

"I think it's fair to say he's highly unpopular at Crystal Palace. He did manage to attach himself at one stage when he was still a part-owner of Crystal Palace by saying: "Actually, I want to be an owner of Everton", which I think came as a bit of a surprise to Crystal Palace fans.

"I'm aware of his pronouncements. He sometimes shoots from the hip.

"He does have a lot of financial baggage to deal with. At the same time, if his sale of Crystal Palace to Woody Johnson goes through, and that's something that has to have approval of the Premier League, he will be sitting with £180 million in his back pocket.

"Could some of that then have to go to deal with the financial complications at Lyon? We would have to wait and see.

"If I was a Sheffield Wednesday fan, I think my concern would be 'frying pan into the fire', going from Chansiri to Textor, and I can absolutely understand it if I was an Owl that, look, we're desperate, we don't care who it is, as long as it's somebody with some money. John Textor has a very mixed track record when it comes to governance and running a football club in a professional manner."

John Textor's issues at clubs outside of England don't make good reading for a potential Sheffield Wednesday takeover

John Textor is a proponent of multi-club ownership model, owning clubs in France, Belgium and Brazil - but all three of these clubs have had issues since he's owned them.

In France, Textor owns 77% of the shares in Lyon, but has had to resign his 'leadership position' on the club's board of directors following protests against him following the club's demotion from Ligue 1 on account of the state of their finances.

There have also been issues at his other two clubs. In Brazil, Textor owns the giants Botafogo, and reports have confirmed that the club has significant debt levels; in 2023 they were the most indebted club in the Brazilian Serie A, with liabilities of around £145 million. It's also been reported that loans taken out by the club from Textor have not remained in it.

And in Belgium, there have been protests over the decision to change the name of the club that he owns, RWD Molenbeek, to Daring Brussels and completely rebrand it.

There is a history of clubs jumping from frying pans to fires in terms of their ownership.

When Bury were expelled from the EFL in 2019, for example, the debts that had been run up by the club had been incurred by an owner who had sold the club for next to nothing to someone who admitted he wasn't even interested in the game.

Sheffield Wednesday are in a bad position at the moment, but things could yet get very much worse, and very quickly if they are sold to the wrong type of owner - and Textor certainly has his flaws.