"Running out of money" - Clear Sheffield Wednesday concern aimed at Dejphon Chansiri | OneFootball

Their has been some interest in the Owls over recent weeks.

Clive Betts, the MP for Sheffield South East, has called Dejphon Chansiri's running of Sheffield Wednesday unsustainable and has questioned where he gets his funding from, amid debate around a new Football Governance Bill.

On Tuesday, many politicians inside the House of Commons debated the proposed bill which intends to install an independent regulator of football in this country. This body, which is set to be headed up by David Kogan, a man whose Premier League connections have worried some EFL clubs, according to The Times, would be able to take action to prevent football clubs, like Bury and Reading, from being mismanaged.

A large majority of 342 to 70 voted in favour of the bill, which could be a huge step in the right direction for supporters, like Wednesday's, who are unhappy with their current custodian and the way that they are managing their team.

Sheffield MP questions Sheffield Wednesday owner, Dejphon Chansiri

Mr Betts, a lifelong supporter of the club who attended a recent meeting with the Sheffield Wednesday Supporters Trust alongside five other politicians, spoke in the House of Commons about the off-pitch worries surrounding the Owls. He

He told the House of Commons on Tuesday: "At Sheffield Wednesday we have an owner who is not actually a bad man, he’s put a lot of money into the club. He’s not written the club off, but he’s clearly running out of money to make the club sustainable.

"He couldn’t pay the players' wages last month, he couldn’t pay the tax dues a few weeks ago and another failure to pay will mean the club are subject to a transfer embargo for three transfer windows.

"That completely undermines both the competitive and financial basis for the club. That’s not acceptable. The chairman is the only director. He doesn’t have a board of directors, he doesn’t have a chief executive. He runs the club from Thailand by remote control.

"When he couldn’t pay the bills, he said ‘My companies are owed money and therefore I haven’t got the money to pay the club’s bills.’ We don’t know what companies those are in Thailand. As far as we can see he has no companies that earn money. We suspect that the money comes from the family trust that owns Thai Union Foods, John West and other brands.

"In other words, he’s reliant on his family members to give him the money to pay the players' wages. That’s not sustainable going forward.

"The fact that this bill allows and compels the regulator to ensure that owners have the funds to sustain the clubs going forward - and (disclose) the source of those funds, so it is transparent and open for everyone to see - is absolutely key, not only for Sheffield Wednesday but for lots of other clubs as well."

There has been much speculation over Chansiri's future at Hillsborough, with a number of wealthy names being linked with the club since the club's missed-payments fiasco in which the players received their March wages way later than expected.

"This is a bill that really helps football and it helps fans in the end to make sure their club is sustainable going forward, to hold owners to account, and it’s great that fans now are going to have a real role in involvement in their club going forward, to be properly consulted.

"Fortunately at Hillsborough there is an engagement panel for fans, but the chairman chooses who goes on it and when you go on the engagement panel you have to sign a statement to make sure you don’t talk outside about what is actually being discussed. What kind of accountability is that? It’s a nonsense."

The Independent Regulator should have a positive on-pitch drip down effect

If clubs like Wednesday and Reading are run properly off the pitch, the chances of them being better on the pitch should increase, although the Royals are doing quite well to disprove that correlational theory at the moment.

The problems at boardroom level at Hillsborough may have a big impact on what goes on between the touchlines, though, as manager Danny Rohl may be questioning his future at the club amid the uncertainty around payments and funding.

If the German were to leave, that would be a huge loss for Wednesday, one that wouldn't necessarily have been caused by footballing factors.