When Dejphon Chansiri bought Sheffield Wednesday, I decided some due diligence was in order. Who was this mysterious man promising riches, and where did his money come from? What I found shocked me.
The New York Times journalist Ian Urbina wrote a series called The Outlaw Ocean in which he detailed the prevalence of slavery on Thai fishing vessels. Thousands of Cambodian and Myanmar men were trafficked and placed on boats with no hope of escape. When the UN conducted a survey of those rescued, 58% of them reported that they had seen their captain kill a fellow fisherman.
To whom did these vessels sell their fish? One purchaser was Songkla Canning Public Co., a pet-food exporter owned by the Thai Union Group. And who is Thai Union’s largest shareholder? The Chansiri family.
To put it bluntly, the family fortune behind Sheffield Wednesday comes largely from a company whose supply chain was found to use slave labour.
I posted one of Urbina’s articles on the club’s Facebook page not long after Chansiri took over in 2015. I wasn’t even particularly confrontational, my caption reading along the lines of, “How do we feel about this?”
From memory, the post received zero likes and approximately eighty comments, most of which were abusive. The most common insult was one no decent, hard-working family man should ever have to endure: I was labelled a Sheffield United fan.
It appears that most football supporters don’t care where the money comes from if the carrot of success is dangled in front of them. The opportunity of seeing Barry Bannan raising the FA Cup above his head is the sole motivator. Who cares if it was paid for by ISIS?
David Storch and his team have been brilliant at laying the foundations for a successful football club. I wrote previously about the importance of the culture they are installing, from club logos all over the building, to hiring David Hirst as a link to our slightly more successful past. However, I have to call out the bad when I see it.
This week, the club announced the start of the MrQ Dugout Club, sponsored by the same company that pollutes the back of our shirts. For those of you who do not know, MrQ is a gambling company.
The government estimates 117-496 suicides in England every year are linked with gambling. It is a predatory industry that bans people who win and encourages those that lose. As someone who dabbled in matched betting, I have experienced both.
Whenever I suffered a big “loss” with one bookmaker (for those of you who do not know matched betting, this means I received a bigger win from a different bookmaker), I would deliberately not use them for a couple of days and wait for the email: “Laurie! We’ve missed you! Here’s a £25 free bet to show how much we appreciate your support.” Whistleblowers at gambling websites have alleged that these companies actively target addicts.
But it’s all fair game, isn’t it? You can still win? Actually, no. Betfred refused to pay Andrew Green the £1.7 million he won, claiming a software glitch. Instead, they offered to “settle” for a figure believed to be around £30-£60,000. Unlike many in this situation, Green decided to fight, and after three years in court, Betfred were forced to pay him the full amount with interest. I wonder how many losing bets have been cancelled due to software glitches.
As for my experience, I am now banned from all major online bookies. I think MrQ might be one of them, but it was four years ago, and my brain has not been the same since Liam Palmer’s goal against Peterborough. Basically, once they realise you are winning, you are out of their club.
This is what differentiates gambling from alcohol. Yes, alcohol also leads to addiction, but the industry does not use the same predatory tactics. When I’ve drunk more than my fair share of Neck Oil, I do not receive an email from Beavertown the following day offering me a free pint (although, they are more than welcome to do so). I also know what I am getting with alcohol: Northern Monk have never rescinded my pint of Faith after performing income checks on me.
Yes, David Storch et al. have been a breath of fresh air at Hillsborough, but I do wish the club looked to Bolton Wanderers for inspiration when it comes to advertising. In 2021, Bolton became the first club to cut ties with gambling companies and, beyond their EFL/Sky Bet commitments, they still refuse to advertise bookmakers.
The Premier League, surprisingly, also agreed to take gambling logos off the front of matchday shirts from this season. Gambling brands still appear on sleeves and advertising boards, but it is a move in the right direction.
This is the kind of moral high ground I would like to see from Storch’s Sheffield Wednesday. It is the one negative in what has otherwise been a fantastic start to Arise’s ownership of the club.