Sheffield Wednesday’s appearance in the High Court today once again resulted in very little if anything being concluded as the judge granted the club a 28-day adjournment.
HMRC were pressing for matters to be dealt with today with the Owls owing them around £600,000 with respect to today’s case alone and significant amounts more have been accumulated since this case came to light with Wednesday now reported to owe around £1.4M to the taxman.
Asking for an extension at this stage was perceived by some to be a risky approach given the fact that the club have previously claimed that a takeover deal was close to completion only for negotiations to stall. However, it seems that Wednesday’s representatives in court have managed to convince the powers that be that a deal involving a local business consortium, believed to be fronted by Spencer Fearn, does have the necessary funds to complete a takeover of the club.
For many fans this while there may be an initial sense of relief that the Owls have not been placed into administration or even worse, wound up completely, the feeling will be that in a month’s time the situation may be the same again and we are forever going around in circles on the subject of investment. This time however could be the last chance saloon given that the HMRC’s patience is wearing extremely thin and the courts can only be lenient for so long if the club simply keep asking for more time. The revised d-day of December 15th may be the last chance that the club has to complete a deal and drag itself out of the financial mire without penalties being imposed by the courts