Wigan in Administration

Of course it was vastly different.

Hard to know where to begin, it's that much different!

Ok, let's start that we had an owner Anderson whose financial interest/bargaining power was to sell the club rather than let it fall into liquidation - Wigan has an owner seeking to liquidate and quickly too, to raise income/stop continuing losses.  So directly opposite objectives of the owners of the two clubs during Administration

We had at least major three creditors prepared to facilitate a purchase at their own personal disadvantage, namely EDT is still owed the best part of £7.5m owed to them and have recently taken out additional secured creditor status on the clubs assets because the terms of repayment have been effected FV's ability to pay with no revenue stream from matches since Covid hit.  Warburton has not pressed for his £1m plus and awaits sale of land he is secured against and James has left his/PBP £6m in the club when he could easily have taken the money and walked away.  Wigan have yet to find even a preferred bidder willing to pay £100k just to look at the books yet!

Our Admin/sale was not effected by the Covid situation, the business world was a completely different world to what it is now - Sharron and a venture capitalist have backed the club with £40m and if you add in EDT, Warburton and Michael James they've put in (or at least not taken out!) a further £15m or so.  As I've already said, Wigan can't find anyone to even pay to look at the books let alone find that sort of money to invest in it!

I could go on but I think I've already made my point.

As for Wigan being stripped to the bones before anyone comes into save them, the time is against them.  

There are already apparently £6m of football creditors (clubs like Barnsley and Everton who have player transfer instalments that have now fallen due to them) which as I understand it needs to be paid first before EFL will allow a sale to go through. Well a sale can go through but EFL will not let the new owners have the 'golden' share membership to play in the league.

Players such as Robinson and Williams (who both were on loan to us from Everton) have relegation release clauses of £1.5m and £2.5m respectively, so Wigan are only going to get 'fire sale' offers for their players right now.

At the same time players haven't been paid for July and the clock is ticking that if something isn't done soon they could walk away for free - with the £6m football creditors still needing to be paid no matter what.

There is also the possibility that Wigan could be hit with a further penalty points deduction this coming season of 15 points if they fail to pay of the 25% owing to unsecured creditors if and when a sale is finally agreed -

"Wigan are facing a further points deduction of up to 15 points should any new owner fail to pay 25% of the money owed to non-football creditors".

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/53318930

Apparently that sum is already at £1.5m - and rising daily!

On top of that the Administrators will take their payment out of the sale - and that won't be cheap!

The video I posted up earlier in the thread with the Administrator seemed to say (at least to my ears) that there is really only two weeks left to find a serious buyer and for the third time I'll point out that no one has even paid to look at the books yet let alone be serious about saving the club!

It might happen, football often defies business logic but from what I can see Wigan doesn't seem to have an Eddie Davies type saviour to ensure their survival (legacy) as Dave Whelan seems to have financial problems of his own right now, let alone several millions spare to rescue Wigan from the worst.

They are certainly up against it and with no white knight in sight for now.

Bassini territory at best I would say!

Sluffy wrote:Of course it was vastly different.

Hard to know where to begin, it's that much different!

Ok, let's start that we had an owner Anderson whose financial interest/bargaining power was to sell the club rather than let it fall into liquidation - Wigan has an owner seeking to liquidate and quickly too, to raise income/stop continuing losses.  So directly opposite objectives of the owners of the two clubs during Administration

We had at least major three creditors prepared to facilitate a purchase at their own personal disadvantage, namely EDT is still owed the best part of £7.5m owed to them and have recently taken out additional secured creditor status on the clubs assets because the terms of repayment have been effected FV's ability to pay with no revenue stream from matches since Covid hit.  Warburton has not pressed for his £1m plus and awaits sale of land he is secured against and James has left his/PBP £6m in the club when he could easily have taken the money and walked away.  Wigan have yet to find even a preferred bidder willing to pay £100k just to look at the books yet!

Our Admin/sale was not effected by the Covid situation, the business world was a completely different world to what it is now - Sharron and a venture capitalist have backed the club with £40m and if you add in EDT, Warburton and Michael James they've put in (or at least not taken out!) a further £15m or so.  As I've already said, Wigan can't find anyone to even pay to look at the books let alone find that sort of money to invest in it!

I could go on but I think I've already made my point.

As for Wigan being stripped to the bones before anyone comes into save them, the time is against them.  

There are already apparently £6m of football creditors (clubs like Barnsley and Everton who have player transfer instalments that have now fallen due to them) which as I understand it needs to be paid first before EFL will allow a sale to go through. Well a sale can go through but EFL will not let the new owners have the 'golden' share membership to play in the league.

Players such as Robinson and Williams (who both were on loan to us from Everton) have relegation release clauses of £1.5m and £2.5m respectively, so Wigan are only going to get 'fire sale' offers for their players right now.

At the same time players haven't been paid for July and the clock is ticking that if something isn't done soon they could walk away for free - with the £6m football creditors still needing to be paid no matter what.

There is also the possibility that Wigan could be hit with a further penalty points deduction this coming season of 15 points if they fail to pay of the 25% owing to unsecured creditors if and when a sale is finally agreed -

"Wigan are facing a further points deduction of up to 15 points should any new owner fail to pay 25% of the money owed to non-football creditors".

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/53318930

Apparently that sum is already at £1.5m - and rising daily!

On top of that the Administrators will take their payment out of the sale - and that won't be cheap!

The video I posted up earlier in the thread with the Administrator seemed to say (at least to my ears) that there is really only two weeks left to find a serious buyer and for the third time I'll point out that no one has even paid to look at the books yet let alone be serious about saving the club!

It might happen, football often defies business logic but from what I can see Wigan doesn't seem to have an Eddie Davies type saviour to ensure their survival (legacy) as Dave Whelan seems to have financial problems of his own right now, let alone several millions spare to rescue Wigan from the worst.

They are certainly up against it and with no white knight in sight for now.

Bassini territory at best I would say!

Of course you disagree

wanderlust wrote:Of course you disagree

It's not a question of disagreeing it is simply factual, our circumstance were indeed vastly different from Wigan's.

Ominously for them things don't appear to have altered much for them (publicly anyway) from Tuesday when their failed appeal result was announced and fwiw this is what their Administrator said about the wage cap - hardly exciting news for their fans is it really?

The tweet is from the fan who did the video interview with the Administrator posted above on this thread.

UPDATE FROM PAUL STANLEY:

- Salary cap keeps costs down for long-term, so it’s good for helping secure sustainability

- In the short term, it doesn’t affect pre-existing contracts for teams who get relegated. #wafc pic.twitter.com/A5YZHmyLA8

— Jay Whittle (@JayWhittle6) August 8, 2020

Wigan. Latest bidder seems legit. American cash in background. Come into race late. Needs to happen soon to pay wages.

— Alan Nixon (@reluctantnicko) August 9, 2020

See how it plays out this week. Spent enough time chasing other people who looked at it and didn’t commit. So waiting for someone to actually do it now. Clock ticking. https://t.co/K4XXm3mVtN

— Alan Nixon (@reluctantnicko) August 9, 2020

Only just seen this new development not sure if it has legs, if not then with the clock ticking i agree with Sluffies summary above, very soon the EFL will need to publish the fixtures they will want assurances that Wigan can and will fulfill the seasons fixtures, despite fielding kids i think the EFL knew that FV were a strong suitor and let us kick off , Bury not so.

As pointed out no one has even paid to look at the books, i thought the only way out for Wigan was either a loan from the Whelan family like Ed did for us, and to buy time, or because the Rugby have a vested interest re the DW stadium and the owner Lenagan was also involved in football in the past with Oxford and a role on the FA, he may try to put a local consortium together.

Guessing this new interest could solve a problem, but if it doesn't work then it purely wastes more time, and the clock is ticking.

There is also the question of the £24.5m loan that may or may not be outstanding too!

I note ww are having a bit of a chat about it at the moment and fwiw this is how I see things.

The original owner of the club IEC put the £24.5m into the club as a loan.

When it was sold to the new owners NLF (the one who put it into Admin) they paid iirc something like £17m and took on the £24.5m to be paid back to IEC.

Shortly after the sale went through IEC reported that the £24.5m had been paid to them in full.

I presume the link below is genuine?

https://www1.hkexnews.hk/listedco/listconews/sehk/2020/0529/2020052901522.pdf

Wigan football club didn't pay the money, so who did?

Whoever did so, and the most obvious ones to do so were NLF haven't seemingly secured the money on assets of the club, so who 'owns' the £24.5m - has it even been written off?

As the money isn't secured on club assets, then I would imagine if the loan still exists it would be classed as an unsecured loan and repayable at 25p in the £.

If its been written off then obviously it doesn't need to be repaid.

I would expect any prospective purchaser of the club would need to get to the bottom of this before entering into an agreement to buy the club - and similarly if there are 'issues' surrounding the club, they would be wise to loom into the company that owns the stadium and the holding company itself just to make sure there are no nasty surprises in store for them.

And all that takes time - and money!

I read that Wigan council owns 15% of the stadium ? not sure if this is correct. Wikipedia ?

[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DW_Stadium#:~:text=The DW Stadium is a,owned by Wigan local authority.]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DW_Stadium#:~:text=The%20DW%20Stadium%20is%20a,owned%20by%20Wigan%20local%20authority.[/url]

Sluffy wrote:There is also the question of the £24.5m loan that may or may not be outstanding too!

I note ww are having a bit of a chat about it at the moment and fwiw this is how I see things.

The original owner of the club IEC put the £24.5m into the club as a loan.

When it was sold to the new owners NLF (the one who put it into Admin) they paid iirc something like £17m and took on the £24.5m to be paid back to IEC.

Shortly after the sale went through IEC reported that the £24.5m had been paid to them in full.

I presume the link below is genuine?

https://www1.hkexnews.hk/listedco/listconews/sehk/2020/0529/2020052901522.pdf

Wigan football club didn't pay the money, so who did?

Whoever did so, and the most obvious ones to do so were NLF haven't seemingly secured the money on assets of the club, so who 'owns' the £24.5m - has it even been written off?

As the money isn't secured on club assets, then I would imagine if the loan still exists it would be classed as an unsecured loan and repayable at 25p in the £.

If its been written off then obviously it doesn't need to be repaid.

I would expect any prospective purchaser of the club would need to get to the bottom of this before entering into an agreement to buy the club - and similarly if there are 'issues' surrounding the club, they would be wise to loom into the company that owns the stadium and the holding company itself just to make sure there are no nasty surprises in store for them.

And all that takes time - and money!

I can imagine a scenario whereby the money that the owners took out to pay another debt (allegedly) which in doing so freed up other funds which went back to Wigan in a never-ending game of "pass the debt" for tax purposes or some other nefarious frivolity.
Or there could be another investor.
If the bills keep getting paid it ain't over yet but i imagine some assets will go somewhere along the line.

wessy wrote:I read that Wigan council owns 15% of the stadium ? not sure if this is correct. Wikipedia ?

[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DW_Stadium#:~:text=The DW Stadium is a,owned by Wigan local authority.]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DW_Stadium#:~:text=The%20DW%20Stadium%20is%20a,owned%20by%20Wigan%20local%20authority.[/url]

Without delving through everything I can accept that to be true but if you think about, it's like saying you own 15% of your house, but whoever owns the other 85% of it gets the main say in things.

As far as I know, again without delving into things, the 'club' owns the other 85% and the club is 'owned' by NLF.

NLF is basically looking for a 'buyer' for everything, which includes its part of the stadium.

I would imagine the principle 'value' in what assets the 'club' has, is the land the stadium is on, the land of its two training grounds and whatever else land it has.

There doesn't seem to be any value on the football side per se as the 'value' is in the players and it seems it needs to 'sell' these players to cover keeping afloat at the present time.

The Administrators could in theory sell the stadium and or training grounds separately but have so far held off as they are hoping to sell the club with stadium and training ground for now.

If they can't then no doubt they will have sell things separately, then you start to get into what do people want to buy them for - to build houses on them perhaps?

In order to do that would depend on what planning restrictions the council has placed on the land - apparently for the stadium only sporting and recreational use is currently permitted - so no houses!

Who then would want to buy the stadium and/or training grounds if they have to remain that way?

Obviously for the stadium Wigan Rugby would but can they afford it/run it thereafter?

They would have to do their sums.

I don't think those sums would include buying and running a loss making football club either.

It wouldn't surprise me if the Council and rugby team get together (probably with others) to end up buying the stadium but I can't see them buying the football club however.

Fwiw there seems to be 5 companies that are being dealt with by the Administrator -

WIGAN ATHLETIC A.F.C. LIMITED
https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/00270043

This is the 'football' club.  The last accounts up to June 2019 showed player wages of just under £20m and a trading loss of £9.2m.

WIGAN FOOTBALL COMPANY LIMITED
https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/03477413

This is the 'stadium and training grounds' - last accounts stated assets of around £24m

WIGAN ATHLETIC HOLDINGS LIMITED
https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/07283993

This is the bit that controls the shares in the company - think how Burnden Leisure was to BEFC.

WIGAN PROPERTY HOLDINGS LIMITED
https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/11205092

This seems to be a company set up by IEC to pump money into the business - nothing much in their accounts as everything seems to balance to zero.

WIGAN SPORTS MANAGEMENT LIMITED
https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/10892240

Set up in July 2017 presumably intended to be the company that bought 'Wigan' similarly to how FV is to us.  Seems instead IEC chose to buy direct and not through this company.  Last accounts showed this company as 'dormant' and not trading with nothing in its accounts.


It's not easy understanding all the twists and turns and I'm a bit weak on the 'share's' side of things as I specialised in the public sector option of my professional qualification - Ten Bob is the one to listen to on that and in particular the comprehensive understanding of accountancy - but that's the best picture I can make of things.

In short I can't see why anyone would want to buy Wigan football club, I can't see how they would get their money back?

I said the same about BWFC and FV proved me wrong (I still can't see what their business plan is though?) but Wigan's plight is made even worse with having no one willing to prop them up from their existing creditors (like EDT and James have with us), selling in a pandemic with a knock on to future revenue stream, depreciation of capital assets(?) and immediate need for £6m football creditors and who knows perhaps a further £6m for that 'iffy' loan as well as having someone solid/dependable enough to guarantee a sale will go through to guarantee the EFL allowing them to even start the season.

Then again I wouldn't back against it not happening even after saying all that!

My logic says everything is against their survival, I'll leave it that.

wanderlust wrote:

Sluffy wrote:There is also the question of the £24.5m loan that may or may not be outstanding too!

I note ww are having a bit of a chat about it at the moment and fwiw this is how I see things.

The original owner of the club IEC put the £24.5m into the club as a loan.

When it was sold to the new owners NLF (the one who put it into Admin) they paid iirc something like £17m and took on the £24.5m to be paid back to IEC.

Shortly after the sale went through IEC reported that the £24.5m had been paid to them in full.

I presume the link below is genuine?

https://www1.hkexnews.hk/listedco/listconews/sehk/2020/0529/2020052901522.pdf

Wigan football club didn't pay the money, so who did?

Whoever did so, and the most obvious ones to do so were NLF haven't seemingly secured the money on assets of the club, so who 'owns' the £24.5m - has it even been written off?

As the money isn't secured on club assets, then I would imagine if the loan still exists it would be classed as an unsecured loan and repayable at 25p in the £.

If its been written off then obviously it doesn't need to be repaid.

I would expect any prospective purchaser of the club would need to get to the bottom of this before entering into an agreement to buy the club - and similarly if there are 'issues' surrounding the club, they would be wise to loom into the company that owns the stadium and the holding company itself just to make sure there are no nasty surprises in store for them.

And all that takes time - and money!

I can imagine a scenario whereby the money that the owners took out to pay another debt (allegedly) which in doing so freed up other funds which went back to Wigan in a never-ending game of "pass the debt" for tax purposes or some other nefarious frivolity.
Or there could be another investor.
If the bills keep getting paid it ain't over yet but i imagine some assets will go somewhere along the line.

No it isn't that.

Accounts stateted that creditors due in the next twelve months showed that money was due to someone (presumably IEC) but the Administrator states that no money has left Wigan football club - so it simply can't be a merry-go-round as you are suggesting.

If was paid by NLF or a third party to IEC the money doesn't seem to have been secured against Wigan assets - and thus IF it is genuinely owed to someone it doesn't seem to be Wigan that is liable for it - hence I guess the Administrators comments about looking not to pay it.

And even if they do end up having to pay it, it would seem to me at least that they are best unsecured creditors - thus 25p in the £.

Maybe it is far more complicated than that but as it stands the Administrators seem to be saying it isn't their/Wigan's problem - and if I were thinking about buying Wigan I'd want to get my own professional opinion on that so that I could claim off them if they were wrong!

What I'm saying in a nutshell is whoever is looking to buy the club will need time to do due diligence properly and I'm not sure the football club has got that much time with players potentially being able to walk away for free soon and EFL wanting guarantees from someone that Wigan are able to complete the season before they will allow them to even start it.

Sluffy wrote:

No it isn't that.

Accounts stateted that creditors due in the next twelve months showed that money was due to someone (presumably IEC) but the Administrator states that no money has left Wigan football club - so it simply can't be a merry-go-round as you are suggesting.

I'm confused.
Why did they go into administration if no money was taken out of WAFC? I thought Choi took money out to pay other debts? Or is that incorrectly reported?
If so, does that imply WAFC were heading for the wall before Choi got involved?

wanderlust wrote:

Sluffy wrote:

No it isn't that.

Accounts stateted that creditors due in the next twelve months showed that money was due to someone (presumably IEC) but the Administrator states that no money has left Wigan football club - so it simply can't be a merry-go-round as you are suggesting.

I'm confused.
Why did they go into administration if no money was taken out of WAFC? I thought Choi took money out to pay other debts? Or is that incorrectly reported?
If so, does that imply WAFC were heading for the wall before Choi got involved?

Cash flow.

New owners simply didn't underwrite trading losses.

Exactly like what happened to us following Eddie's death and Anderson not underwriting Bolton's trading loss.

No idea where you read Choi took money out, the sale agreement turned his loan into one repayable over just 12 months, which for a sum of £24.5m could not be done with the club even though it had no other debts outstanding at the time other than normal day to day stuff.

Wigan, like Bolton and multiple other clubs as was/still is the norm in the sector were trading at a loss with a wealthy benefactor underwriting them - that's why Choi's/IEC £24.5m was there in the first place (exactly the same as how Eddie Davies/Moonshift loaned BWFC money and was eventually written off to the tune of some £200m).

After the sale Choi's company IEC received payment in full of the £24.5m so is no longer involved with Wigan.

Nobody knows where the £24.5m came from and what sort of a deal, if any, the person/company took over the loan which is showing as outstanding on Wigan's books still, but no charge was taken out on Wigan assets according to the Administrators.

So the situation as it stands is that there is a loan of £24.5m outstanding to be paid in Wigan's accounts but that loan has been settled at the creditors end.

The Administrators are not aware of any legal agreement between IEC and whoever settled with them to take on the debt (think factoring, one company buying the debt off another).

If nobody owns the debt the only conclusion I can come up with is that it has been written off by whoever paid the money to IEC.

Whoever buys Wigan needs to assure themselves professionally that that is indeed the case.

To be fair to Choi/IEC he funded Wigan since his takeover in 2018 to the tune of around £41m (or at least that is what he sold it for including the £24.5m debt he certainly put into it (interest free at the time I believe) - think similar to Venky's and Blackburn.  

Was it financially viable when he bought it in 2018?  

No.

Was it financially viable when he left it early this year?

No.

Was it heading to the wall you ask - before Choi got involved?

Yes - but again to be fair to Choi that was the industry norm at the time (think Anderson buying Bolton)

There where only two ways to go with such a position, one being the owner to continually underwrite the club from his own pocket, or the other to reduce costs/raise income to achieve a financially sustainable business.

Choi chose the first, Anderson chose the second (being propped up with Eddie's help behind the scene with cashflow).

Was Choi a bad owner?  Can't say I noticed too many Wigan fan's calling him out until the sale this year.

Was Anderson a bad owner?  You certainly believed so along with many others but he did reduce costs whilst keeping us somewhat competitive for a time (promotion and staying up the following season) and hasn't appeared to have raped and pillaged the club to line his own pocket - or at least the Administrator hasn't acted from his forensic examination of the clubs accounts which he is legally obliged to if that had happened.

Wigan if they survive will have to go through the same process to become sustainable.

The problem as I see it when people criticise club owners is that the vast majority of people simply have no understand how company's run and the concept of limited liability.

If they did they could at least better understand what is happening and why.

Even without the coronavirus this day has been coming for decades. The simple fact remains that the north west of England simply cannot support the number of professional football clubs that currently exist. The "cachment" area and available fanbase simply isn't large enough to do so given the current expense running and maintaining a football club entails.

I don't think it's any kind of coincidence that the three clubs most recently left in turmoil by income not matching expenditure are all within a few miles of Manchester. Bury, ourselves and Wigan are never going to operate profitably when the vast majority of football 'fans' now prefer to watch from home on Sky or go to a 'big' game involving Man Utd or Man City.

Although it pains me to say it I believe it will be necessary for some NW clubs to merge if they are to survive in the long term. Otherwise you'll see us lurch from one crisis to the next until Bury are joined in oblivion by several other clubs including Preston, Blackburn, ourselves, Wigan, Rochdale, Oldham and perhaps even the likes of Tranmere and Salford City.

Football is now at a crossroads, one in which it must evolve or the lower leagues will die.

Agree that the catchment area that we are in is overloaded with football clubs, the last thing this area needed was a Salford City, however for over 100 years most of these clubs co existed, so is it the catchment area or the greed due to sky money that is the real cause.? The Premiership is beginning to disgust me, paying 100 million to finish bottom paying ridiculous transfer fees and unsustainable weekly wages. Whilst clubs in the EFL go bust.

PNE are well run, likewise Brentford despite all the London clubs. agree we are at a cross roads but can't see anything changing before some clubs do go tp the wall.

luckyPeterpiper wrote:Even without the coronavirus this day has been coming for decades. The simple fact remains that the north west of England simply cannot support the number of professional football clubs that currently exist. The "cachment" area and available fanbase simply isn't large enough to do so given the current expense running and maintaining a football club entails.

I don't think it's any kind of coincidence that the three clubs most recently left in turmoil by income not matching expenditure are all within a few miles of Manchester. Bury, ourselves and Wigan are never going to operate profitably when the vast majority of football 'fans' now prefer to watch from home on Sky or go to a 'big' game involving Man Utd or Man City.

Although it pains me to say it I believe it will be necessary for some NW clubs to merge if they are to survive in the long term. Otherwise you'll see us lurch from one crisis to the next until Bury are joined in oblivion by several other clubs including Preston, Blackburn, ourselves, Wigan, Rochdale, Oldham and perhaps even the likes of Tranmere and Salford City.

Football is now at a crossroads, one in which it must evolve or the lower leagues will die.

So does that mean we need to claw our way back to the top of the shitheap before the amalgamations start?

Administrator provides update on sale of Wigan Athletic

Co-administrator Paul Stanley says they are still talking with several potential bidders interested in buying the club.

But nobody has paid the £100,000 bond which they are demanding to begin the exclusivity process.

While frustrated by the lack of development, Stanley understands why the interested parties are doing their due diligence – and why it is taking time.

With a stadium, two training grounds, statements and various contracts to scrutinise, the possible buyers want to know just what they are getting into before handing over £100,000 to the administrators’ lawyers. That non-refundable bond is to cover their legal costs should the bidder withdraw.

“There’s not a lot of movement at the moment, there are still people there but they’re asking questions and finding out what they need to find out,” Stanley said.

“We’re still engaging with interested parties, and there are people locally and overseas.

“It’s a lot of work as nobody is sending the money and we’re having to deal with everyone’s questions.

“I know everyone wants us to say, ‘It has happened’, and one day there will be that news – but we’re not there yet.”

The administrators, brought in on July 1, had previously identified a preferred bidder but talks collapsed when they wouldn’t pay the bond.

A bid spearheaded by Warriors owner Ian Lenagan is the only party to publicly confirm interest in buying Latics.

On the positive front, Stanley eased some fans’ concerns there may be a rush to secure a new owner, saying Latics could start their new campaign in League One next month in administration if necessary.

Players will return to training today to begin preparing for the new campaign, with Leam Richardson - who was Paul Cook's assistant - taking charge.

https://www.wigantoday.net/sport/football/administrator-provides-update-sale-wigan-athletic-2939596

lets face it, who in their right mind would pay £100,000.00 for exclusivity?

Only someone with more money than sense, and if he was out there he'd have paid it by now, shirley? 

Update | Statement From The Joint Administrators

The Joint Administrators would like to provide the following update to the supporters.#wafc

— Wigan Athletic (@LaticsOfficial) August 13, 2020

THE JOINT ADMINISTRATORS WOULD LIKE TO UPDATE THE FANS, EMPLOYEES AND PEOPLE OF WIGAN WITH THE CURRENT SITUATION.

1. SALE OF CLUB
We are continuing talks with various interested parties and are in discussions with four bidders regarding the sale.

We have set a deadline of 31 August 2020 to agree and sign the sale contract.

If the contract is not signed by this date, we will have to reconsider the position on the basis that the new season starts a week later. The reason for this is that we will be responsible for the team at the start of the season and the fulfilment of the fixtures.  Understandably, if no buyer is available, we do not wish to commit to something we cannot see through.

We are still hopeful that one of the bidders will be in a position to sign the contract as set out.

2. PLAYER SALES
We can confirm that in the last week, the registrations of Joe Gelhardt and Kieffer Moore have been sold to Leeds United and Cardiff City respectively. The Joint Administrators wish them all the best in the future.

There are further negotiations currently taking place regarding player sales and these will be announced when they are completed.

3. SUPPORTERS CLUB
We would like to thank the Supporters Club for their continued financial support.

They have today agreed to advance us from their own funds the money to buy next season’s first team strip which will bear the Supporters Club logo for the beginning of the season.

4. WAGES AND SALARIES
We can confirm that the wages and salaries of all staff and current playing squad have been paid in full up to 31 July 2020.

With regards to players who have left the club, we are working to pay these as soon as we can and will be after the next player sale proceeds are received.

On 1 July 2020, Paul Stanley, Gerald Krasner and Dean Watson of Begbies Traynor were appointed joint administrators. All communications should be c/o Begbies Traynor. Please contact the joint administrators either by phone on 0333 009 6869 or by email at wiganafc@btguk.com

https://wiganathletic.com/news/2020/august/Update-Statement-from-the-Joint-Administrators/

Sounds like the death knell to me.