Thai stakeholders spread their wings 

Thai stakeholders spread their wings 

It was admittedly hardly earth-shaking news, but a little piece of football history took place last Saturday when Reading beat Sheffield Wednesday 2-0 at the Madjeski stadium. It was the first time two Thai-owned teams have played one another in the English league.

Earlier last week, Sheffield Wednesday, aka The Owls, became the latest Thai-owned team in England after being taken over by seafood magnate Dejphon Chansiri, whose family controls Thai Union Frozen Group, the world's largest producer of tuna. Although the deal is subject to approval by the Football League, it seems unlikely there will be any objections.

Thaksin Shinawatra, of course, was the first Thai owner of an English club when he bought Manchester City in 2007, but he sold it the following year.

The Premier League's Leicester City were taken over by Thailand's King Power Group in 2010 when they were still in the Championship, while a Thai consortium led by businesswoman Khunying Sasima Srivikorn took charge of Reading last September.

The new owners at Sheffield Wednesday will have been closely watching the performances of the other two Thai-owned clubs. Leicester performed impressively to win promotion to the Premier League last season, but are currently rock bottom and face a relegation battle.

It is early days, but the Thai influence has yet to work any wonders at Reading who have struggled and are in an underwhelming 16th place.

Taking over Wednesday would seem a prudent investment. Sheffield, famous for its steel industry, is a big city with a large support base and really should have at least one club in the top flight. The other Sheffield club, United, who were relegated from the Premier League in 2007, are currently in League One.

There is an intense rivalry between the two Sheffield teams. Actor Sean Bean, a former director at United, was once asked: "What's the worst thing anyone ever said to you?"

He replied: "Do you support Sheffield Wednesday?"

Currently 10th in the Championship, Wednesday are one of the most famous names in English football. But they are also amongst the worst under-achievers. The third-oldest club in the English league, nearly all their successes came in the distant past… very distant.

Former manager Howard Wilkinson once called them: "The big city team, with the small town mentality."

Wednesday won their first league title in 1903 and made it two in a row the following year, despite only scoring  48 goals, one less than Liverpool who were relegated. The last of their four league titles was back in 1930 and their only success of note  in more recent years was the League Cup trophy in 1991 when they beat Manchester United 1-0.

They have been in and out of the top flight throughout their history, occasionally dropping to the third tier. Their last appearance in the Premier League was in 2000, but  they  have not been a serious force for years.

Wednesday play at one of England's most famous stadiums, Hillsborough, currently with a capacity of almost 40,000.

Hillsborough is known as being the scene of the worst disaster in British football history when 96 spectators were crushed to death and 170 injured  because of severe overcrowding at the start of the 1989 FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest.  

The club is originally descended from The Wednesday Cricket Club which only played  on Wednesday afternoons as many of the cricketers were retailers who got a half-day on Wednesday. When the football club was first formed in 1867 they were known as Wednesday Football Club, before changing later to Sheffield Wednesday.

They got the nickname, The Owls, from the early days playing at Owlerton stadium in the northern suburbs, later to become known as Hillsborough.

There is a sad tale from the early 1950s when Wednesday had a talented young striker, Derek Dooley, who scored an amazing 64 goals in 63 league games.

Despite getting rough treatment from defences, in the 1952-53 season he had scored 16 goals in 29 games when he broke his leg, which became badly infected, resulting in amputation. It ended a hugely promising career at the young age of 23. 

Wednesday were in the top flight throughout the 1960s and in 1961 came runner-up in the league to Tottenham Hotspur's Double winners.

But in 1964 they found themselves in the middle of a scandal when three of their top players — Peter Swan, David Lane and Tony Kay — all went to jail for their role in a match-fixing/bribery scandal which rocked the Football League.

Wednesday went down into the old Division Two in 1971, but the club's lowest point came in 1975 when they were relegated to Division Three for the first time and only narrowly escaped dropping to the Fourth the following season.

Understandably there was much unrest amongst the fans. One long-time supporter fan wrote to a local newspaper announcing he was going to emigrate.

"I've torn up my rosette in disgust, burnt my scarf, and given my rattle away," he said. "There's nothing to keep me here."

The Owls fans have learned to become more patient these days and the Thai influence might just add the spice necessary to give the team a vital edge.

The new owners have already been busy on the transfer market, with the club signing four players on deadline day, including highly rated Romanian striker Sergui Bus from Bulgarian league leaders CSKA Sofia.

You never know, they might soon find themselves once again knocking at the door of the Premier League — now that would be a real hoot for the Owls.

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