By MIKE KEEGAN, CHIEF SPORTS REPORTER
Published: 07:22 EST, 14 December 2025 | Updated: 07:22 EST, 14 December 2025
Sheffield Wednesday are currently the subject of three bids, with the hope that a new owner at Hillsborough can be found early in the new year.
Daily Mail Sport revealed that a US consortium made up of two previously opposing groups led by US billionaire John McEvoy and former Plymouth suitors the Storch family, has now merged, while ex-Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley and a group involving Dunfermline Athletic co-owner James Bord are also in the running.
With a price tag of around £30m, the Owls will not necessarily go to the highest bidder.
While the role of administrators Begbies Traynor is to secure the most money for creditors, they also need to be sure that a preferred candidate will pass the EFL’s Owners and Directors Test, and the two may not go hand in hand.
Spare a thought for Shrewsbury Town. Many will recall that League Two club, starved of cash like so many others down the pyramid, believed they had landed a bumper payday when they drew Liverpool at home in the FA Cup back in 2020 and held the Merseyside giants to a draw.
However, in the midst of a fixture pile-up, Liverpool decided to allow their first teamers to enjoy the winter break and instead put out a youngest-ever starting line-up which was led by then Under 23s boss Neil Critchley, reducing admission prices for the Anfield replay in a move chairman Roland Wycherley believed cost his club as much as £500,000.
Shrewsbury Town have drawn Wolverhampton Wanderers away in the third round of the FA Cup
It comes six years after the Shrews held Liverpool to a draw at home in the FA Cup
However in the return leg at Anfield, the Reds fielded a youngest-ever starting lineup
The Shrews, currently up for sale, may well have been expecting a windfall after the draw for the Third Round pitted them against local rivals Wolverhampton Wanderers at Molineux. However, the Premier League side have set prices at £10 for adults and £5 for concessions.
‘The FA take 10 per cent, then the stewarding and policing costs come out, the VAT gets paid and the two clubs split what’s left between them,’ said a disgruntled Wycherley.
‘The pricing belittles the competition and is disrespectful to the visiting club. They’ve already stropped replays and when the FA introduced the £10 10 years ago, it was as a minimum and not a maximum.
'We’ll end up making more from our match at South Shields in the first round. We’ve written to Wolves to say we strongly disagree but what can we do? Yet again, the lower league club gets shafted. It’s not our fault Wolves are reducing prices because the fans are up in arms about their owners.’
For their part, Wolves deny the reduced entry is anything to do with the current environment at Molineux, instead stating that while they accept Shrewsbury’s view ‘as the home club we have to act in the best interests of our supporters and that has guided the pricing for this game’.
Tickets for Premier League matches at Wolves for adults range from £32 to £71.
Some interesting comments from Rick Parry, at a recent football analytics conference held at Oldham Athletic’s Boundary Park.
EFL Chairman Rick Parry made some interesting comments this week at a football analytics conference
The EFL chair, on forthright form, told the audience that had the Premier League made a suitable offer to end the long-running redistribution stand-off, then Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister at the time, ‘would have binned the regulator, even at the 11th hour’. Parry also described the lack of three promotion slots for the National League as ‘indefensible’.
‘We need to embrace change and I think clubs would vote for it,’ he added, pointing out that such a move would need to be allied with greater financial controls. ‘There comes a point where you’ve got to do what is right for the greater good.’
The Lionel Messi appearance at the Salt Lake Stadium in Calcutta, which resulted in chaotic and often violent scenes with rioting fans, will not have helped India’s ambition to host the 2036 Olympics.
Grandees at the IOC will be concerned that the serious lapse in security for one iconic athlete does not bode well for the safety of the thousands of Olympians that would be in India for the Games.
Scores of angry punters ripped up seats, while the pitch was invaded as a 45-minute appearance by the Argentina super star was abandoned after just 20. The event’s chief organiser has been detained by police.
Fans paid as much as £100 but were left frustrated thanks to a large crowd of VIPs who surrounded Messi, with a lap of honour scrapped amid the bedlam.
JUST IN - Messed up: Soccer legend Messi’s India visit turned chaotic as fans vandalised Salt Lake Stadium after his brief (just 20 minutes) appearance.
The event's chief organizer has been detained by police pic.twitter.com/T3Rvv3qRRW
— Insider Paper (@TheInsiderPaper) December 13, 2025
The Lionel Messi fiasco this week in Indian will not have boosted their chances of hosting the 2036 Olympics
Plenty has been said on FIFA’s outrageous ticket prices for the World Cup with the old adage: ‘A fee for one thing and a fee for another,’ ringing true.
Garford Beck, who has followed the Three Lions all over the world and who manages EnglandFans FC, summed it up well. ‘These people are actually robbing us of our game, snatching away the dreams of thousands who were hoping to attend next year’s World Cup,’ he said.
‘To say I’m outraged would be an understatement, I’m feeling very emotional and it’s as if we’re coming to the end of an era. It feels as if a chapter is closing in my life.’