British millionaire Mike Danson is said to be in talks to purchase crisis-ridden football club Wigan Athletic from its current Bahraini owners, according to sports website, The Athletic.
Wigan-born data mogul Danson, the owner of GlobalData and The New Statesman, already owns a 25 per cent stake, since 2020, in Rugby League club, Wigan Warriors. Both Wigan Athletic and the Warriors share the DW stadium.
Media reports suggest Danson is the preferred choice of the English Football League (EFL) as the new owner of the club, subject to a deal going through, and intends to purchase both Wigan Athletic and the DW Stadium.
League One club Wigan have been struggling with financial woes over the past season and received yet another blow yesterday when they were served with a winding up petition notice by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), according to media reports.
There is no exact figure yet for the bill but it is believed to be in the vicinity of £1m. The owners will have to respond to the notice within a week. Failure to pay the bill will convert the petition into a winding up order, threatening the future of the club.
Just last week, Wigan Athletic were slapped with a transfer embargo by the EFL for breaching rules on tax payments.
That setback came after the club was relegated to League One from the EFL Championship at the end of the 2022-23 season and will start next season on minus eight points after failing to meet an EFL funding deadline last month.
The club is currently owned by Phoenix 2021 Limited, a consortium led by Bahraini businessmen, Abdulrahman Al Jasmi, the ultimate owner, and Talal Mubarak Al Hammad, currently the club chairman.
Wigan were rocked further also last week when two of the three board directors resigned.
Tom Markham and Oliver Gottman said in a statement announcing their resignation that the failure of the ownership group to meet another deadline to ensure payment of salaries to senior team players and some members of staff had rendered their position ‘untenable’.
According to reports, the club, which has now been put up for sale by Al Jasmi, was unable to pay player and staff salaries on five different occasions last season.
Last week, the Wigan ownership group announced that it had struck a deal to sell the club to a new buyer who had ‘committed to resolving all outstanding liabilities at the earliest opportunity’.
According to media reports, 21-year-old British Indian soft drinks entrepreneur Sarbjot Johal was said to be the man in talks to buy Wigan Athletic.
However, given that Johal has failed to close another deal with League Two club Morecambe over the past few months, doubts have been raised about his bid for Wigan.
The Athletic reported that Johal’s stated intention to invest a seven-figure amount to clear outstanding player salaries for the month had yet to come to pass.
Meanwhile, the EFL has stated that the recently imposed embargo is for failing Regulation 17 of their rules.
According to that regulation, a transfer embargo will be placed on clubs if they fail to pay due tax and/or National Insurance on staff wages or fail to report any late payments to the EFL.
However, it is unclear whether changes to rules announced last week – which state that clubs who accumulate 30 days of late payments over a 12-month period will face a transfer embargo for three consecutive transfer windows – apply to Wigan or not.
Interestingly, the current owners had also revealed plans last week to reduce the club’s budget for the 2023-24 season by relying more on youth players and cutting the salaries bill by 65pc.
In the interim, several key players – captain Tendayi Darikwa, Joe Bennet and Jordan Cousins among them – have left Wigan, leaving the club with 21 senior players. With the squad still waiting for salaries which were due on June 2, several others are considering quitting Wigan after not being paid on time for the sixth occasion this season.
Since Al Jasmi is now willing to sell, any prospective buyer will have to consider the club’s debt along with the recent points deductions.
Loyal Wigan Athletic fans are hoping that Danson – who, with an estimated wealth of £1.17 billion, was reported to be the 128th richest person in the United Kingdom in 2021 – succeeds in his intended takeover of the club.
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