Wigan: calm after the chaos?
Wigan fans had every right to hate 2020 more than most, enduring an owner who almost killed their club. It’s taken a year – but the smiles are finally back...
Supporting Wigan Athletic should come with a health warning. Fans of the 2013 FA Cup winners have been through the mill ever since: after dropping out of the Premier League that season, they’ve seen two promotions, three relegations and eight permanent managers.
“Blood pressure issues following Wigan are second to none,” Latics fan and The Pie At Night writer Sean Livesey eye- rolls to FFT.
In May 2019, things were looking up. Boss Paul Cook had led Wigan to League One glory two years earlier, and they had survived in the second tier amid a prolonged takeover bid from the Hong Kong consortium IEC.
“We were rooted to the bottom at Christmas,” explains Livesey. “But by the New Year, a lot of our signings – like Jamal Lowe and Kieffer Moore – clicked. We played some of the best football we’d seen in a long time.”
Wigan clambered out of the drop zone, but their good run was halted by coronavirus. Then came another takeover from Hong Kong in June – from businessman Au Yeung Wai Kay – before the restart. Smashing wins to nil against Huddersfield, Blackburn and Stoke offered a perfect welcome, and took the Latics eight points clear of danger – but disaster was to strike.
“After we beat Stoke, we heard we were entering administration,” recalls Livesey, of the revelation that Kay had hired an insolvency firm to liquidate Wigan within a month of purchasing them. “We found out the club owed £ 40 million to Kay, yet this money had seemingly never passed through the accounts. It was bizarre.”
Administration meant a 12- point deduction, as the Latics’ survival bid suddenly seemed doomed. Staff and players were laid off, but a ludicrous 8- 0 victory over Hull – the biggest in the club’s history – kept hopes alive.
“It was amazing but heartbreaking at the same time,” says Livesey. “We knew that even if we could stay up, this side was going to be torn apart.”
Wigan’s fate was in their own hands going into the final day, but a home draw with Fulham signalled relegation to the third tier. Cook departed, with John Sheridan named his successor.
Mercifully, the administrators opted against liquidating the club, as Kay eventually waived £ 36m of loans and scurried off in a cloud of uncertainty.
Wigan began their new League One season ownerless, shorn of 21 more first- teamers who had been sold or released, and managed just two wins in 14 games. Takeover bids came and went, while fans raised cash to pay salaries. The November 2020 arrival of Cook’s old No. 2 Leam Richardson as manager proved defining, however.
“Miraculously, just as results started to improve in March, administrators announced a formal agreement had been reached with a buying group called Phoenix 2021,” says Livesey.
Led by Bahraini businessman Talal Mubarak al- Hammad, Phoenix 2021 completed their deal in March 2021, two months before Wigan preserved third- tier status with a game to spare.
“We’re on the up,” beams Livesey. “The new owners have been different in their approach – Al- Hammad has even become a star in his own right on Twitter. I don’t think they’ll splash the cash, but they want to get Wigan back to the Championship. There’s no debt, and we’ve got a fanbase that’s desperate to watch football again. To be honest, we’re simply thrilled that’s still an option.”