Wigan in Administration

RangersDave wrote:The EFL will roll over, they have done nothing over some of the 'sell your stadium to yourself for double the amount' scams going on, they are really a toothless tiger.

Wigan will survive, because. 
Trouble is, EFL have a different set of rules to everyone else and its a movable feast for them. No set in stone crap, which is why i expect them to allow wigan to play this weekend. Too much trouble for them not to i suppose.

Unless Wigan players say no thanks, and walk away. Rightly scared of injuries, or near future wage problems with a club that wont have any revenue stream to pay them.

They'll be in a similar position to us last season having to play the kids i reckon until a buyer is found.

will they not suffer a transfer embargo ?

RangersDave wrote:will they not suffer a transfer embargo ?

 They should do as we did and are still under one now. Only loans and freebies allowed

thought so, so they are FCUk'd then.

We had the same, plus we are still paying FFP i think at 15m per year fine. Mind you, we had owners who thought they had the golden egg spunking millions (yes ok, hundreds of millions) on has been big time charlies that were only after 1 last payday.  

I think we were treated too hashly but thems were the made up on the hoof rules and deserved EFL retribution of some kind.

Lord knows it they dont make the match this weekend a go-er, what the EFL will do.

'No problems foreseen' from EFL meeting - Wigan Athletic administrator

Gerald Krasner believes his meeting with the EFL to provide reassurances about Wigan Athletic's ability to start the season 'went well'.
The administrators met with the governing body on Wednesday with little over a week to go before the start of the new EFL campaign.
Latics are still looking for a buyer, having been in administration since July 1, and with more than half of last season's playing staff - and boss Paul Cook - moving on.
But Krasner insists there's enough positive movement - despite one of the frontrunners, Norman Smurthwaite, pulling out yesterday - to suggest they will be given the green light to start 2020/21.
"We as the administrators need the blessing of the EFL to start the season," he told the Wigan Post.
"It went well, the meeting, and I'm not foreseeing any problems.
"I would be amazed if they did come back with a problem.
"We updated them where we are on the bidding, we told them we are confident we'll get a bid that we can actually get over the line, and we can start the season.
"We put the case that if we didn't have a bidder that we were confident about, we wouldn't be asking. It would have been the end.
"But we are confident about this.
"There's no evidence we can give them in writing, but we are officers of the court, we're not going to lie - despite what some of the fans may think."
When asked whether the American-led consortium - fronted by Oostende CEO Gauthier Ganaye - was now in pole position, Krasner added: "I'm not commenting on that.
"But I haven't got just one iron in the fire, put it that way.
"And I'm not holding anybody up, everybody's getting the same information.
"Every bidder has been told why we need to do this, and where we are.
"It's just a case of everybody putting their hands in their pockets if they want this.
"Some of the people who I'm not even including as a bidder are coming to us with their fourth different consortium.
"Well, you lose heart after the first one, let alone the third one.
"I've got an inner ring of bidders and an outer ring of interested parties."
Latics kick-off the season this weekend in the first round of the Carabao Cup at Fleetwood, and Krasner says off-field events will have no bearing on matters on-the-pitch.
"I'm going to put a team out until somebody tells me I can't," he said.

https://www.wigantoday.net/sport/football/no-problems-foreseen-efl-meeting-wigan-athletic-administrator-2960338


I imagine this puts the EFL in a spot.  On the one hand the Administrator is telling them they are confident of a buyer but on the other hand they haven't got anything definite to show them.

Do they go along with that - like presumably they were told by our Administrator about us (although they had seen FV's proof of funds at the time) or do they thing along the same lines as Bury where they had a different scenario of a CVA but that the creditors hadn't agreed to?

The EFL clearly don't want to lose a club but neither do they want to let one start but fold halfway through the season?

I half suspect the Administrator wants the EFL to say no and be seen as the bad guys - but as he said, they are 'officers of the court' and have no reason not to say what they believe to be the case?

All the time that no owner is found and no income coming into the club will inevitably lead to more sales of players or the chippy or training ground (as the Administrator has said the stadium will only be sold with the club)?

All seems a right mess to me.

Fair play to the supporters club who had got up to £600k the last time I looked but that isn't enough to buy the club on its own.

Maybe the EFL will compromise in someway if they are given a guarantee that Wigan can see the season out (rather than proof of funds for two seasons) and worry about it all again next summer?

If I were the EFL and had no likely buyer even one being a favourite to buy, let alone having exclusivity, then I'd say sorry, your time is all but up, the league season starts on the 12th and if I don't have something concrete by then, that's it.

Didn't they give us a Bury some formal notification along those lines iirc - and I would expect they would do the same to Wigan now.

Yes we got 14 day notice . Only 9 days to season ? But ours was started after the season started giving us until 12th September . Ironically this years start date


https://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/news/17864018.bolton-wanderers-given-14-day-expulsion-notice-efl/

Wigan making player signings - so I guess that means the EFL gave the green light, so I guess that would also imply Wigan will start the season also?

(Note former Wanderer, Viv Solomon-Otabor was one of the signings)

https://wiganathletic.com/news/2020/september/Signings-Latics-bring-in-Dan-Gardner-and-Viv-Solomon-Otabor/

Also and possibly connected in terms of the EFL allowing this to go on, a further newsletter from their supporters association -

Due to legal restrictions and non-disclosure agreements we may not be able to share every detail with our supporters, and we may not be able to update you as often as we would like. But we will be transparent and open as far as possible and we will provide updates at every opportunity through our website and social media channels.

This week, with the consent of the administrators, Wigan Athletic Supporters Club have already met with one of the interested parties who have put in a bid to the administrators. They are very positive about working with us should their bid be successful and they are keen to ensure that they have local partners working with them to make the Football Club a future success.

We are also continuing to work with the council, the Community Trust, Jonathan Jackson, and other partners to ensure that there is a solution to the survival of our Football Club.

https://www.wiganathleticsupportersclub.co.uk/statement-from-wasc-4th-september-2020/

WIGAN. Major development on new buyer side. French American team now offered for club and training ground. Let admin start a separate auction on ground. Gets football back up and going if accepted ... sort bills later. Not a bad idea.

— Alan Nixon (@reluctantnicko) September 6, 2020

This group want it done. Whatever way they can. If that means the club and a training ground first, so be it. Then join stadium auction. There’s no time for messing now. This needs sorting. https://t.co/Ns8ZawNTTj

— Alan Nixon (@reluctantnicko) September 6, 2020

I still can't understand what is going on here?

The Administrator has stated that the club and stadium would not be sold separately.

They would have obtained a professional value as to the value of the ground, training grounds, chippy and whatever else and used that as their basis of the minimum they would receive if they had to sell it in liquidation.

It may well be that the price( £3.5m for stadium and training ground and £500k for chippy) is quoted higher whilst in Admin that what they probably expect they will fetch under liquidation (what do you do with a sports stadium that can't be used for anything else, the land it sits on can not be used to build houses, etc on (maybe the could build factory units though?) and that can't be filled by the fans of the football club and/or the rugby club and thus trades at a loss?).

Whoever buys the club (even without a stadium) will trade at a loss, or be forced to field a Sunday League side as there isn't the revenue streams to support better. I can see the supporters club being ok with that but why would some random Americans want to put in their money with no obvious means of a return on it?

Certainly got me baffled?

The best I can come up with - and I've mentioned this previously is that their plan is NOT to have the stadium and to relocate the club once they have control of it to some place other where they believe they can can generate better revenue sources.

I can see this all ending in tears.

No buyer is bothered about chippy. Lenagan doesn’t want football club hassle. So going to need a very good reason for turning down an offer for club and training ground at this stage. If it’s a no ... well. https://t.co/6Ov61KSq1E

— Alan Nixon (@reluctantnicko) September 6, 2020

Administrators report (up to August) filed at Companies Hose

https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/00270043/filing-history

Can't say I've bothered to read it in to much detail as things have been widely reported been reported on since that time but one small thing of interest was that the company that valued the stadium, etc - Eddisons (see Chattel Assets p5 of Admin report / p11 of 45 of attachment) is later described (see Sale of Club - p11/ 17 of 45) as part of the Begbies Traynor group - the same group the Administrators are part of.

Nothing illegal in that per se but with there seeming to be a stumbling block over the valuation/proposed sale price of the stadium impacting on the negotiations leading to a successful completion of the Administration, then maybe in retrospect it would have been better to have a completely independent valuers assessment to avoid future allegations of potential conflicts of interest arising?

There’s an offer of 500,001 in. https://t.co/95KU05J4yr

— Alan Nixon (@reluctantnicko) September 6, 2020

Fair play official Wigan

We are appalled by this tweet. This is not representative of our supporters. This account had already been blocked and reported several times by the club. We apologise for any distress caused by this social media post from someone claiming to be a Wigan Athletic supporter.

— Wigan Athletic (@LaticsOfficial) September 6, 2020

Sluffy wrote:Fair play official Wigan

We are appalled by this tweet. This is not representative of our supporters. This account had already been blocked and reported several times by the club. We apologise for any distress caused by this social media post from someone claiming to be a Wigan Athletic supporter.

— Wigan Athletic (@LaticsOfficial) September 6, 2020

Disgusting!

The twitter account has now gone.

I hope somebody responded “still solvent”

Every club has it's fair share of bonehead numpties among it's support. It's just that Wigan AFC's share is way way larger than anyone else's. I'm still really, really struggling to generate any sort of sympathy for them.

Hip Priest wrote:Every club has it's fair share of bonehead numpties among it's support. It's just that Wigan AFC's share is way way larger than anyone else's. I'm still really, really struggling to generate any sort of sympathy for them.

 
Same here, a shit club with no fans, let them go bust, they won't be missed.

American bidders 'not serious at the moment' - Wigan Athletic administrator

Gerald Krasner doesn't believe the American consortium fronted by Oostende CEO Gauthier Ganaye are 'serious bidders' for Wigan Athletic at present - despite them meeting the asking price for the club and Christopher Park training ground.

Krasner confirmed the group - backed by American financiers Randy Frankel and Michael Kalt - have submitted a £500,000 bid for the Standish Lower Ground base, plus a token £1 for the club.

But the Latics co-administrator says their lack of a plan for the DW Stadium - which is up for grabs at a cool £3million - means the offer had to be turned away.

When asked by the Wigan Post if they'd met the asking price for the club and the training ground, Krasner replied: "Yes they have.
"But then there's no stadium to play in, is there?
"They're not interested in the stadium.
"Somebody still has to be the stadium and then come to a deal with the Americans.
"Whatever you write and whatever you do on this will be wrong, I'll tell you now, because I'm not going to tell the whole story today."
Two fresh bidders are also understood to have gatecrashed the process, with Wigan's costly wage bill having been slashed by the recent flood of sales.
"What I will say is talks are progressing with a number of very serious bidders," Krasner confirmed.
"I don't think the Americans are serious bidders at the moment.
"They're running their campaign through the media, despite doing an NDA (non-disclosure agreement).
"They are telling the media certain things that suit them, and other things that don't suit them are not being disclosed.
"When I do my next press conference, I will cover it.
"They don't understand, and I'm not going into the details now.
"But they have put that offer in, which we would accept under certain conditions, which they won't accept."
Krasner confirmed there had been no offers for the DW Stadium as yet, and refused to say whether any more players would be leaving.
"No comment," he added. "I'm not making it easy for you, I know, but it has to be done this way."

https://www.wigantoday.net/sport/football/american-bidders-not-serious-moment-wigan-athletic-administrator-2963692

Seems very odd that they would want the training ground and the club but not the stadium?

Norpig wrote:Seems very odd that they would want the training ground and the club but not the stadium?

It seems the stadium is to big for the average crowds they get - both for the football and the rugby - and it operates at a loss.

The 'stadium' is thus set up as a company in its own right but under the umbrella of the parent (or head) company - which the equivalent to us would have been Burnden Leisure.

This company then charges a 'rent' to the football and rugby clubs to play there but runs at an annual loss even so.

It was thought that the rugby owner Lenagan wanted to buy the stadium but did not want the football club - or rather he couldn't afford to run the club in insolvency (it's income being less than its expenditure). It seemed from what I could make out that he was happy to buy the stadium and let others in a consortium with him take on the club and run that independently but playing at the stadium (at an agreed rent) but couldn't broker such a deal. He was happy to buy the stadium independently and strike a deal with whoever bought the club to play there at an agreed rent - but again no agreement could be brokered and the Admin has seemingly always intended that the club AND the stadium should be sold together.

I wasn't aware until I followed all this unfolding over the last month or so how completely divided the people of Wigan are in respect of their football and rugby - it seems you can only love one and must hate the other - so much so that people are saying in Lenagan buys the stadium they will not watch and football games there in the future and visa-versa a mural of the Wigan football captain was yesterday painted on a pub wall in Wigan and defaced within hours by rugby fans painting their slogans over it!

The proposed buyers above who had their offer of £500,001 turned down (£500k for the training ground and £1 for the club) apparently could not come to an agreement for Lenagan to buy the stadium and they rent it so as to play their games there.

As this proposed group is supposed to be backed by a billionaire it makes completely no sense to me why they are quibbling over what must be the equivalent of loose change they have in their pockets to them.

Similarly it doesn't ring true to me that all these new bidders have suddenly just shown up just as the league season is about to kick off - as far as I can make out the EFL must have granted Wigan a months grace (based on the month length contracts they recently signed a couple of players on) to get things properly sorted and no one showing their face just now could possibly do that in 3 or 4 weeks from scratch to completion - or if they can they must be taking a hell of a big risk - Bassini style I would suggest.

So seems to be stalemate at the moment with the clock relentlessly ticking the time down to when the EFL will have to act.

Why would anyone buy a stadium they would lose money on/ Why would anyone buy a team without a stadium? Why would anyone want to buy a team with no players (and no stadium). Why would anyone want to buy a stadium that people are not allowed to attend during Covid. Why would people want to buy a club with no income. Why would anyone want to buy a stadium that can't be used for any other purpose than a stadium and when it is they can't fill it (even before Covid) and it runs at a loss???

Buggered if I know!

Interview with administrator coming up on talkSPORT from ten.