Sheffield Wednesday

Also written as Sheff Wed.

The club

Sheffield Wednesday were founded on 4 September 1867 and play at Hillsborough, in the north-west of Sheffield. The ground holds 39,732. The club are the Owls, and play in blue and white vertical stripes.

Note on sourcing: swfc.co.uk did not return usable content to automated fetches during research for this dossier, so nothing here comes from the club's own site. Everything below is from Wikipedia and the competition pages listed at the end.

Recent seasons

Wednesday finished 16th in the Championship in 2019/20 with 56 points. They were relegated the following season, finishing 24th with 41 points, having started the campaign under a points deduction for a profitability and sustainability breach: 12 points, reduced to 6 on appeal. Two seasons in League One followed. They were fourth in 2021/22 with 85 points and lost the play-off semi-final to Sunderland, then third in 2022/23 with 96 points and went up through the play-offs. Back in the Championship they were 20th in 2023/24 with 53 points and 12th in 2024/25 with 58.

2025/26 was the worst season in the club's history and one of the worst in the Championship's. Danny Rohl left on 29 July 2025 and Henrik Pedersen, his assistant, was appointed on 31 July 2025. On 24 October 2025 the club entered administration, joint administrators being appointed from Begbies Traynor, and were docked 12 points. A further 6 points were deducted on 1 December 2025 for failing to meet payment obligations, making 18 in total. Unpaid wages had run through March, May, June and July 2025, with repeated EFL registration embargoes. Wednesday won 2 of their 46 league matches, drew 12 and lost 32, scored 29 and conceded 89, and finished 24th on 0 points. They set Championship records for the longest winless run, 39 games, and the longest losing run, 13. Relegation was mathematically confirmed on 22 February 2026 with a Steel City derby defeat to Sheffield United, the earliest relegation in Football League history. Arise Capital Partners LLC, fronted by David Storch, Michael Storch and Tom Costin, completed the purchase of the club from Dejphon Chansiri on 2 May 2026, and the EFL waived the 15-point deduction that had been planned for 2026/27, so Wednesday start this season on zero rather than on minus fifteen.

Honours and landmarks

Four League championships: 1902/03, 1903/04, 1928/29 and 1929/30. Three FA Cups: 1896, 1907 and 1935. One League Cup, in 1991, won 1-0 against Manchester United while Wednesday were a second-tier side, which remains the club's last major trophy. Their best run in Europe was the quarter-final of the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup in 1961/62, where they beat Barcelona 3-2 at Hillsborough and lost 2-0 in Spain, out 4-3 on aggregate. Record attendance is 72,841 against Manchester City in the FA Cup fifth round on 17 February 1934. The highest average home gate was 42,530 in 1952/53. Andrew Wilson holds both the appearance and scoring records, 546 games and 217 goals between 1900 and 1920. Record fee paid is £8m for Jordan Rhodes from Middlesbrough on 1 July 2017; record fee received is £6.57m for Lucas Joao to Reading on 6 August 2019.

Notable scorelines

Record win: 9-1 against Birmingham City at Hillsborough in the First Division on 13 December 1930. Record defeat: 0-10 at Aston Villa in the First Division on 5 October 1912. The match modern supporters reach for first is the League One play-off semi-final second leg of 18 May 2023, when Wednesday, 4-0 down from the first leg at Peterborough United six days earlier, won 5-1 at Hillsborough to level the tie at 5-5 and went through 5-3 on penalties. Josh Windass scored three and Michael Smith two penalties. Windass then scored the only goal, in the last minute of extra time, to beat Barnsley in the final at Wembley on 29 May 2023.

Head-to-head notes

No published all-time head-to-head record could be established for any 2026/27 League One opponent. The club's own site, which would normally carry them, was not reachable, and 11v11 blocks automated access. What is documented: Wednesday shared the 2025/26 Championship with Leicester City and Oxford United, and all three went down together, Oxford 22nd on 47 points, Leicester 23rd on 46 after a 6-point PSR deduction, Wednesday 24th on 0. Wednesday and Barnsley last met in the 2023 League One play-off final, and Wednesday and Peterborough United in that season's semi-final, both described above. Bolton Wanderers, the EFL Cup first-round opponent, were last a regular fixture in League One in 2022/23. Records against AFC Wimbledon, Blackpool, Bradford City, Bromley, Burton Albion, Cambridge United, Doncaster Rovers, Huddersfield Town, Leyton Orient, Luton Town, Mansfield Town, Milton Keynes Dons, Notts County, Plymouth Argyle, Reading, Stevenage, Stockport County, Wigan Athletic and Wycombe Wanderers are not established.

Right now (2026/27)

Henrik Pedersen is still the manager, a year to the day since his appointment on 31 July 2025 and with a record of 2 wins in 50 matches. He was retained through relegation and the change of ownership.

Recruitment under Arise has been mostly free transfers and undisclosed fees. In: centre-back Ricardo Santos from Swansea City on 19 June; right-back Jordi Liongola from La Louviere on 27 June; midfielder Callum Slattery from Motherwell on a free on 1 July; centre-back Sil Swinkels from Aston Villa on 2 July; midfielder Barry Bannan, returning to the club, from Millwall on 9 July, the same day winger Louie Barry arrived from Aston Villa; goalkeeper Joe Lumley from Bristol City on a free on 11 July; midfielder Billy Mitchell from Millwall on a free on 19 July; goalkeeper Connal Trueman from MK Dons on a free on 30 July; and goalkeeper Ashley Maynard-Brewer from Dundee United on a free on 31 July, three goalkeepers signed inside three weeks. Out: Svante Ingelsson to Stoke City and Olaf Kobacki to Wisla Plock, both on 1 July, and goalkeeper Pierce Charles to Manchester City on 10 July.

Six pre-season friendlies included a 3-0 defeat to West Bromwich Albion, a 3-2 win over Preston North End and a fixture against Stoke City, with training at St George's Park and a tour of Budapest and Vienna. No competitive match has been played yet. The EFL Cup first round, drawn on 25 June, sends Bolton Wanderers to Hillsborough on Saturday 8 August 2026, kick-off 15:00. The League One campaign opens away to Leyton Orient at the BetWright Stadium on Saturday 15 August 2026, 15:00.

Sources

Researched and written for not4quarters. Where a fact could not be established from the sources read, this page says so rather than guessing.