Exclusive: Cleo founder Hussey-Yeo to head fan bid for Sheffield Wednesday
The founder of fintech unicorn Cleo, Barney Hussey-Yeo, has offered to front a bid to buy struggling Championship club Sheffield Wednesday, Morning Wire can reveal.
The Sheffield-born data scientist will invest his own capital as part of a bid that would involve other wealthy Owls fans, as well as the wider community if necessary, to take Wednesday out of administration.
The Hillsborough club’s former owner, Thai tuna tycoon Dejphon Chansiri, filed with the High Court last week, with the Championship outfit reportedly owing £1m in unpaid tax.
Hussey-Yeo says his boyhood club Sheffield Wednesday needs a “multi-billionaire that can just pump a ton of money in with deep pockets” but admits that “it doesn’t look like we have bidders for that”.
“So can we get this to be a fan-owned club,” the Cleo founder adds. “And do this for them to make it sustainable, to invest in the under-23 academy?
“What I really don’t want is to go back to having someone who wasn’t quite wealthy enough. He did a push and it didn’t work, and then he completely blew the club up and he’s been trying to sell it for years for too much of a price.
“I think what we had with him trying to be a chief executive of it was a terrible idea, so I’m happy to do the media, be the front face, be the chairman, but I’m not going to run the club day to day.
“I’d put a great CEO in place but it is a work in progress. I’m getting the Due Diligence pack this week, so we’ll see what kind of state the finances are in, which will be super interesting.”
Sheffield Wednesday future
The club cannot be sold by the administrators Begbies Traynor within 21 days, and neither can the club be in administration for more than 18 months.
Sheffield Wednesday were handed a 12-point deduction due to their administration filing, leaving them adrift at the bottom of the second-tier Championship by 14 points.
The straight-talking fintech maverick cites Derby County as a recent example of a club which could represent a ballpark figure for purchase – it was sold to David Clowes for £18m with the administrators charged over £3m – while admitting the likelihood is that Sheffield will be in League One next season.
“I’m not a multi-billionaire,” Cleo founder Hussey-Yeo adds, “I’m in the low hundreds so I don’t want to be that person trying to fund something unsustainable.
“I’ve been a Sheffield Wednesday fan since I was born, it is in my blood and it is an incredible city. It’s pained me over the last decade to see Sheffield United be the better club so I think a fan-owned club could be a real [prospect].”