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Wigan's journey out of administration

The Athletic has published a fascinating in depth account of the administration process at Wigan Athletic.  I do find The Athletic good value with high standards of writing and I can recommend a subscription.

Here are a few highlights which show just how dire Wigan's situation was and it's good to see it resolved.

'There have been plenty of bumps in the road over the last eight and a half months and the takeover is still not quite complete — although it is just a formality now — but when Wigan line up for their first game of next season they will do so at their own ground, having prepared at their own training ground, with a team stocked with talent from their own academy, with no debts and every chance of still being in League One.

But Stanley [administrator] also cares about his reputation, so he wants people to know how he achieved this and why he believes he and his colleagues at business recovery firm Begbies Traynor are worth every penny of the £2 million or so they will have earned when this is all over. Because, and there is no getting away from this, administration ain’t cheap.

Wigan had left last summer (almost nothing), what was coming in (again, almost nothing) and what they owed (£36 million to their former owner, £6 million to other clubs, £5 million to unsecured creditors, including nearly £3 million to the taxman, and a similar sum in deferred wages to players and staff, with a monthly wage bill of nearly £2 million to start paying).

It makes for grim reading but not a huge shock, as we already knew Wigan had lost £9.2 million in the 2018-19 season, despite making a £7 million profit on player sales. With annual income of £11.5 million, before COVID-19, and a total wage bill of more than £19 million, this was a business that needed regular top-ups.

For more than two decades that had been the responsibility of Dave Whelan, the footballer turned retailer who became the proud custodian of his local club.

According to the January progress report, Wigan’s total expenditure for their first six months in administration was £11.7 million, of which £5.3 million was gobbled up by football creditors, who must be paid in full, and £3.6 million going on wages. The club’s total income was £12.8 million, leaving a balance of £1.1 million.

It is that money, plus the £300,000 deposit the Spanish forfeited when they pulled out at the last minute and two pandemic-relief grants totalling £650,000 that came through in January, which gave Stanley the time he needed to close the deal with the group led by Bahraini businessman Abdulrahman Al-Jasmi.'


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