Wigan in Administration

I can’t see any way that the additional suspended 4 points won’t now be added whether the EFL give the owner an extension or not. They have failed to adhere to their agreement and from the looks of things don’t seem keen to adhere to any agreement since they’ve failed to so often up to now. As you say, it’s a strange one why they bought the club in the first place. I can only assume that they expected it would be easy to stay in the Championship with the players they signed  but clearly that’s not the case. Their managerial changes also indicate a lack of knowledge but one thing is for sure and they will know it well now, that running Wigan is going to cost them a serious wedge continually and probably far more than they anticipated when they bought them? Try as I might I can’t see this ending well and I genuinely fear for them even starting next season. If the worst happens I can’t see why anybody would buy them either because if they’re not paying wages are they paying anything else, like HMRC? 🥴

Depends on whether the EFL was contacted and agreed an extension of time before the initial deadline expired I would suggest.

As for HMRC, I believe Income Tax deductions and NI contributions deducted from wages and due to the taxman only happen at the point the wages are actually paid - so if I'm correct about that the club won't owe anything to HMRC for any outstanding wages not yet paid but will owe (if they have not already paid the taxman) any Income Tax and NIC's on deducted from wages already paid to the players.

Sluffy wrote:Depends on whether the EFL was contacted and agreed an extension of time before the initial deadline expired I would suggest.

As for HMRC, I believe Income Tax deductions and NI contributions deducted from wages and due to the taxman only happen at the point the wages are actually paid - so if I'm correct about that the club won't owe anything to HMRC for any outstanding wages not yet paid but will owe (if they have not already paid the taxman) any Income Tax and NIC's on deducted from wages already paid to the players.

Exactly Sluffy and as I said the danger then being that the deficit will just continue to grow!!

EFL Statement - Wigan docked a further 4 points.

Following the failure to ensure that an amount equal to 125% of the Club’s forecast monthly wage bill was deposited in a designated Club account by Wednesday 24 May, as per the order of an Independent Disciplinary Commission, Wigan Athletic Football Club has been deducted a further four points and will now start the 2023/24 season on minus eight points (-.

This follows a previous sanction of four points after failing to pay its players’ wages on time in March 2023 and May 2023.

The EFL has spent the past 48 hours in dialogue with the Club in an attempt to find a positive outcome to the issue but as of 9am Friday morning the required funds have not been deposited.

The decision by the Independent Disciplinary Commission can be viewed here.

https://www.efl.com/news/2023/may/wigan-athletic-efl-statement/


Wigan issued a statement BEFORE the EFL's

The interesting bits being...

Firstly, I want to confirm that an eight-figure sum is currently being processed and is due to land in the Club account imminently. This funding will also ensure financial stability for June and the 2023/24 season. We have been transparent with the EFL who have had full visibility of this amount throughout the process following Friday’s [19 May] statement.

It is important to address the numerous late wage payments. As I have previously stated, I recognise this is totally unacceptable. Since Phoenix 2021 acquired Wigan Athletic in 2021, the ownership group will have invested over £30m into the Club to date. In the first year, we invested a large proportion of that to transform a squad of three players into a squad capable of competing for promotion back to the Championship within two seasons. This investment paid off as we gained promotion at the first time of asking, but it also meant we had a much-increased wage budget to fund this season.

As time went on and with the realisation we needed to strengthen again in the summer and in the January Transfer Window, the wage budget was unfortunately becoming more and more unmanageable. The inflated wage bill resulted in cash flow issues which meant we could not adhere to the Agreed Decision with the EFL in January. However, everything possible was done to ensure wages were paid. Delays are a common occurrence with overseas transactions, but that is not and cannot be an excuse for late payments...

After meetings with the Board and Technical Board, the wage budget for this coming season has been agreed upon. It will be over 65% less than what it was this season, making it a much more sustainable budget from an ownership perspective. We know, however, that this will still be a competitive budget in League One.

https://wiganathletic.com/news/2023/may/26/Club-Statement-The-Chairman-on-the-past-12-months-and-future-plans/

They then posted this AFTER the EFL's statement of a further 4 point penalty...

WIGAN ATHLETIC RELEASE THE FOLLOWING IN RESPONSE TO THE EFL’S LATEST CHARGE OUTLINED BELOW...
We are extremely disappointed with this latest decision. The Football Club has been very transparent with the EFL who have had clear visibility of the eight-figure sum to finance the remainder of this season and the whole of next season.

The Club will now consider all options open, including legal action in response to this, and will make no further comment at this time.

https://wiganathletic.com/news/2023/may/26/club-statement-wigan-athletic-respond-to-the-efl-s-latest-point-deduction-charge/



So they seem to have pissed away £30m, apparently chucking in another £10m.

They also say the wage bill will be over 65% less than last season's!

I can't be arsed to look up what the wages were in their last accounts (which would be the season before the one that has just ended) but I suspect they will be trying to shift as many of their top wage earners who are already contracted for the coming season, as soon as they can.


It's a mystery as to what they are really up to?

I can only think they really have more money than sense, otherwise why not put an end to their losses?

I don't know if anyone else is really interested in what's going on at Wigan but I find it facinating in a 'car crash' sort of way.

The latesst is that one of the Directors kindly gave a fan who had be demonstrating outside the club for two days a PRIVATE interview as to what as been going on behind the scenes.

Fair play to him for doing that but completely naïve too as the fan promptly posted up the notes of his meeting on Twitter...



Oh dear!

One of the many ironies is that for most of the interview the Director talks about the clubs need to have better communication with staff and fans both internal and external to the club - only for all the staff and fans to find out about his thoughts on some random blokes of twiter!!!

What he did say reading between the lines is that the former Chief Exec burst the bank from the off on signing players on high wages to get them promoted which meant the owner (who is ASSET rich but CASH poor) struggle to find liquidity to pay the wages on time thereafter.

It seems he has now borrowed against property he owns in London and will operate from now on by financing the club for 2 to 3 million per year with revenue and player sales covering the rest of the trading costs (hopefully!).

He makes no secret that the big wages earners need to be moved on from the club as fast as they can.

He also says the appointment then sacking of Kolo Toure cost the club a fortune.

He doesn't really says much that wasn't already obvious or I had concluded myself other to confirm where the funding is coming from.

Anyway below is the tweet from Kendrick (Wigan's equivalent of Marc Iles) which he confirms with the Director that the fans tweet is all true.

(Note click on the tweet if you want to read the 4 pages of notes of the interview).

Hard to know what is going on at this moment.

Wages were due yesterday and a number of unexplained things have happened since.

First and mainly nothing has been heard from the club, its Chairman, or the owner.

Unconfirmed reports were that club staff and the under 23's had been paid and the players would be also later that day.

Next, pictures emerged that the club shop (which had been open earlier in the day) had closed - the rumour being the staff had not been paid and have walked out.

Marc Iles equivalent on the Wigan paper - and who had reported all the club staff had been paid - issued an update now saying not all of the staff had been paid.

The gossip is that the 125% of wages that should have been put aside in a bank account had still not been done and that the promised '8 figure sum' from sale of a property had yet to be seen at the club.

Nobody - the club, the EFL, the reporters (Wigan paper/Iles equivalent), those 'ITK' on social media or even Alan Nixon - seems to know either the latest state of play or what will be happening next.

It could be everything is in hand to the owners have done a moonlight flit!

Surely it can't be allowed to carry on like this - the EFL is going to have to put their foot down sooner or later.

Christ! I feel sorry for the normal staff who haven’t been paid.

Wow, their only two independent Directors have resigned now!!!

(Leaving just the Chair - who is the son-in-law of the owner).

NOTE - click on the statement in order to see it in full (there are a couple of additional paragraphs to what you can see in this tweet alone).





Also -

The Companies Act 2006 states that any private limited company has to have at least one active director while public limited companies have to have at least two. Any business that does not meet these minimum requirements will be held to be in direct breach of the legislation.


Phoenix 2021 is a public limited company (PLC) so they are going to need at least one new director as a replacement for the two who have just left.

I think as you said earlier Sluffy, this is looking like being one monumental car crash. Clearly the owners either don’t have the cash flow to support the club indefinitely or they are stringing everybody along until the transfer window opens and they can dispense with the high earners and possibly get fees for the one or two saleable assets and also hoping to receive a “sell on” fee for Robinson if a move transpires. If it doesn’t I think they’re stuffed and I can only see the owners walking away with anything they can get and leaving the club in tatters. I really do see another Bury here because the current owner really has no love for the club and it seems only purchased it as a toy for his son. I don’t think for a minute that he expected it to cost so much and the management under his son has been absolutely dreadful and naïve. I suspect cutting his losses would be the cheapest option but it’s unlikely now that if he did want to sell the club on a new owner wouldn’t have the time to complete before the new season starts. As you say the EFL must surely act decisively soon in order to resolve the situation properly.

I honestly have no understanding of what is going on at Wigan.

If we look at a few of the facts, the owner has put in £16.5m in terms of shares issued up to April this year.

The accounts showed that the club lost £600k in the first part season of their ownership and a further £7.6m in their promotion season.

Their CEO Mal Brannigan said before he was sacked that the season just gone (in which they had two complete changes of managers and staff) cost them much more than their promotion season.

So let us say for argument sake that the £16.5m they put in as equity (money they have put into the business) has now been spent plus no doubt a few million extra that must have been put in as unsecured loans.

It seems reasonable to say they have probably put £20m into the club so far (possibly even more?).

So bearing that in mind what assets do they have?

Iirc they paid just £2.5m for the stadium and training ground.

What value of the players do they have - if they don't pay them they leave for free - and to pay them cost say at least £1m per month (the note above from the resigning directors even talked about needing over £2m to pay all outstanding debts on a previous late payment of wages).

We gather that Friday's wages are still outstanding - and the next wages are in just 4 weeks time.

The transfer window opens in two weeks time and every club knows that Wigan are desperate to sell - meaning they won't get full price for anyone they sell - they need to accept virtually the first offer they get.

Let us be kind and assume Wigan has no other creditors like the Taxman or trade suppliers (they probably do though!), so all the money they can recoup will go to them - then what can they expect to recoup?

Any buyer will drag a sale out - they don't want to pay wages during the summer - meaning Wigan's owners will have to, if they want to hang on to the players they want to sell (note - in law you have to pay ALL the players, you can't just pay those you want to keep).

So the owners will have to find say another 3 months wages - at we have said would be at £1m per month (maybe more, maybe less - we don't know really).

Who in their squad is worth any money.

They say a young kid called Hughes is their best player - but will some pay £4m for him - and if they did that only covers the clubs wages over summer - so the owners aren't really getting anything back on the £20m they put in.

Will someone even seriously want to buy Wigan - they are going to have a club with a probable double digit points penalty, a squad of kids and players no other clubs want, and only 4,000 Season Ticket holders for next season.

They look odds on to be relegated to the fourth division - not really a good investment on the face of it really.

As for the mythical £10m sell on fee for Robinson, I'll believe it when I see it.

Apparently he is now in the final year of his contract and he may sign a new one for all we know, or they sell him cheep because he can leave for free this time next year.

The owners are not going to get anything like their £20m back.

If they go into Admin they immediately lose their £16.5m in shares - and whatever they've put in as unsecured loans will at best only get 35p in the £ for.

If they don't go into Admin then you need an outstanding creditor to go to court for a Winding Up order - mostly likely that would be the taxman if he hasn't been paid.

If they don't pay that, then they will be put into compulsory liquidation.

If they go into Admin, they will also have to pay Admin's fees - which no doubt would come from the sale of the stadium - so they aren't going to recoup any of their money there.

They really only have two options to my mind - if they really have money behind them, then carry on like Venks have at Blackburn and hope long term the club will make it back for them.

If they haven't put the club immediately into voluntary liquidation and stop throwing good money after bad.

I suspect their plan now is not to pay the wages, sell what they can during the window and liquidate at the last possible moment they can.

But then again this is football - and anything can happen - and usually does!

One think I hadn't picked up on was the bit about the 125% bond (which is mentioned in one of the paragraphs you can't see in the tweet above without clicking on to it).

It is clearly stated that the bond is for £2.35m

If so that would mean monthly wages of £1.88m per every four weeks.

So 13 pay days in a year equals £24.44m

Ouch!!!

Maybe there is a relegation clause in the players contracts otherwise Wigan are in really deep financial trouble I would suggest.

Maybe there's something I'm not understand about the figures though???

For comparison, the wages for the club in their promotion season are shown to be £11.7m

It would seem at first glance that the wages more than doubled the season just gone to £24.44m.

Double ouch!!!

Sluffy wrote:But then again this is football - and anything can happen - and usually does!

Wow - now it looks like they've sold it!!!!

CLUB STATEMENT | OWNERSHIP OF WIGAN ATHLETIC

A statement from the ownership group:

A deal has been agreed in principle for the sale of Wigan Athletic Football Club to a prospective new buyer - subject to EFL approval.

The prospective new owners have committed to resolving all outstanding liabilities at the earliest opportunity.

Further updates on this process will follow in due course.

https://wiganathletic.com/news/2023/june/04/club-statement-ownership-of-Wigan-Athletic/



It all seems far, far too convenient and contrived to me.

I'll be very surprised if this is all genuine.

It is too good to be true methinks.

Sluffy wrote:

It is too good to be true methinks.

+



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Just heard the news on the radio!

Bassini seems to tweet every other week to say he's bought a club but never actually happens, he's a fantasist. I would laugh if he did buy Wigan though as that would definitely be the end of the pie eaters 

I don't believe for one moment that some reputable bid to buy the club has just appeared by magic.

It's blatantly clear that Wigan's current owners haven't been able to fund the club for the best part of a year at least and even if they sold the club for just a £1 that the new owners would be taking on some considerable commitments such as the wages bill for the whole of next season plus whatever debt is left in the club - whilst having about 10 a points penalty at least and where the current owners have already said they need to slash the wage bill by two thirds and chuck in £3m - just to break even for the new season!!!

That's why you get these chancers like Day (Bury) and Bassini making offers in order to grab hold of the club and asset strip it of what it has left.

The Tweet below is from Matt Slater the Senior football reporter at The Athletic - clearly one of the two bidders so far seems to be in the 'chancer's' category!

We all know it takes ages for sales to go through so unless you put a case forward that a genuine attempt to sell has been going on for months and that's why the current owners have left it to the last moment to pay the monthly wages until now when the sake is a few days away - then it seems very unlikely to me any 'genuine' sale will take place before the prospective buyers can go through the books (do due diligence) and the EFL do all their checks on them (Fit and Proper Owners) - and that will take weeks and months!

Of course there is nothing stopping Wigan being sold to anyone at the drop of a hat - but if the EFL are not happy with the new owners, they will simply remove Wigan's right to play in the league.

I see this saga running for quite a while longer yet!

...And just as I've typed my post above, lo and behold...



...and if the name sounds familiar...

Entrepreneur Sarbjot Johal, 20, believed to be close to takeover of Morecambe

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/jan/04/entrepreneur-sarbjot-johal-20-believed-to-be-close-to-takeover-of-morecambe

21 year old? I have jumpers older than that 

Players still haven't been paid + bills are stacking up so urgent investment is needed.


This is from one of the authors of the story - I recommend you view some of the replies to his tweet - they made me laugh!