Sheffield: the most broken football city in the country

How the two clubs in South Yorkshire need God’s help right now.

They are rock bottom at the foot of the Championship table. After coming so close to returning to the Premier League, the decline of Sheffield United has been so acute that Chris Wilder has been brought back to the club, three months after he was dismissed.

At Sheffield Wednesday, their owner Dejphon Chansiri has not been paying staff on time and fans have started to boycott matches.

Read more: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2025/09/27/sheffield-is-the-most-broken-football-city-in-the-country/

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I’m in Sheffield, which at the moment is the most broken football city in England. Two clubs at the bottom of the Championship. And I’m going to walk from Hillsbor Sheffield Wednesday stadium to Braml Lane, Sheffield United Stadium. Sheffield Wednesday have weathered numerous storms in the past year, all at the hands of their owner, Defron Chaneri. He’s failed to pay players and staff on time. The club have been under transfer embargos. They also failed to keep hold of their promising young manager Danny Ro. I made the journey with John Harrison, owner of the Beer House Pub in Hillsborough, who has witnessed the decline firsthand. Everyone’s very frustrated with the silence from Chanceri. We’re not getting any messages from them and some communication would probably help, but we certainly feel like we’re in a a dark dark place at the minute. It’s impacted all the local businesses around because I think obviously when there’s less people around, less fans around, there’s less money being spent, whether that’s in the shops or the cafes or the pubs. So I think every single business in Hillsborough is suffering from Chad Siri’s reign. There’s the only optimism is when Shan Siri goes, that’s it. I can’t see any sort of way up until we get rid of, you know, the man that’s causing us all the problems. So at the minute there’s no optimism, but we’re hopeful that Sheffield Wednesday will have a future, you know, once he’s gone. The Beer House is around the corner from Hillsborough and is a match day staple for Wednesday fans. The memorabilia around the pub shows signs of better times gone by. After finishing our pints, we strolled into the United side of Sheffield. Not that there’s far between the two camps. As we approached Bramold Lane after chatting with fans along the way, the feeling was that they’d sooner rather than later get their first win of the season. I’ve walked from Hillsborough to Braml Lane and met some characters on the way in this city, Sheffield, a football city that’s been broken. But what I can say is that there is some optimism on the red side of the city. Unfortunately for Sheffield Wednesday, all they want is for Chanceriri to go.