LATICS READY TO GO AFTER BILLS SLASHED

WIGAN will write to the EFL for permission to start the League One season as the club’s administrators close in on a sale.

Begbies Traynor set a deadline of August 31 to sell the club in order to begin the new campaign.

But that deadline has been removed after enough capital was raised through the sale of the Latics’ Euxton training ground to cover costs for September.

Two American groups and two British groups are interested in buying the club, and the hope is that a takeover will be completed before the season starts on September 12.

Wigan Supporters Club has also raised more than £100,000 and are in talks with local businesses about buying a stake in the club to ensure they have a say.

The Latics administrators want the new buyers to have around £4million. The club will be effectively sold for £1 – but the £4m will cover the cost of the DW Stadium at £3m, as well as an adjacent plot of land and the club’s old training ground.

They have already secured the sale of their main Euxton training base, which they purchased from Bolton in 2016, for around £1.6m to another Football League club, believed to be Preston.

Administrator Gerald Krasner said: “I’ve got what I call the frontrunners. I’ve got two different groups of Americans and I’ve got two UK bidders.

“One of the UK people has got the wherewithal to do it, but has got certain conditions, so we’re still talking to these people.”

They are confident the EFL will grant the club permission to begin the new campaign so long as all of the bidders do not drop out.

Kieffer Moore (above), Antonee Robinson, Joe Gelhardt and Jensen Weir have all been sold to raise around £4m, while the wage bill has been cut from around £12m to about £2m.

There is still an outstanding debt of around £5m but the administrators have raised enough capital to clear that should they find a willing buyer.