The 12th Man column, pt.I: 'Chinese takeover concerns were raised years ago...'

Paul Middleton:

As anyone who knows me will tell you, I’m a terrible loser. I like being right, and hate admitting I’m wrong, although I will do from time to time. Today, though, I couldn’t be more sorry about being right. I first expressed concern in this column, about the Chinese takeover, in 2017, long before it actually happened.

I wondered why a foreign buyer would be remotely interested in a perennially loss-making business like Latics. Silence and secrecy didn’t make any of these concerns go away.

Indeed, the lack of engagement from the new owners has been a particular cause for concern. A large group of fans thought it meant money would be invested in the club. Some of us knew better, having seen it all before at clubs all over the country. Just a month ago, the club was sold again, nominally to Stanley Choi, principle shareholder under IEC, but with 75 per cent of shares going to another unknown entity by the name of Wai Kay Au Yeung.

Au Yeung allegedly had the knowledge and experience to guide the club out of trouble, and so the EFL did what the EFL do best... they waved him through the fit and proper test with seemingly no scrutiny applied whatsoever. But is that really the full story?

The information we have is that Wai Kay Au Yeung clearly indicated to the EFL he had funds to last until at least 2022, but then chose not to hand any of it over to the club to keep running. In which case it’s perhaps not right to blame the EFL. How do you legislate for someone lying to you?

The Cayman Islands company was clearly the vehicle to put the club into administration without it hitting IEC on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. There was, in my opinion, never any intention of any money being put into the club once that was done.

The takeover by Au Yeung was undertaken through a company registered in the tax-avoidance paradise of the Cayman Islands. Immediately, this should have rung alarm bells for everyone involved, but too few people raised concerns. I know because the reaction to my own protests have been often criticised on social media.

I’ve been accused of scaremongering, being a trouble-maker, damaging the club. You name it, I’ve been called it. But here we are. You don’t set up a company and put in in administration five weeks later by accident. It all stinks of being a calculated and deliberate act to preserve assets and recover losses for the shareholders in the coming months.

Or it would, but for the fact that none of the charges were ever transferred to the new company, meaning the appointed administrator has been able to seize control of every aspect of the club, from the stadium to the players’ contracts. This, as any accountant will tell you, is a very odd situation.

As it stands IEC/Choi/Au Yeung/Whoever have no claim on any club assets. They will recover some money from the sale of the club, but it won’t be close to what they’ve lost.

The only inference I can draw from that is IEC just wanted shut of the club. Instead of being the golden ticket to riches which so many think English football is, it turned out Latics have never been a part of that group. Not really. So, there you have it. We are now officially ‘a club in crisis’.

Just as things were going well on the field, things fall apart off it. Will we finish the season? Will we even have a club in a few weeks? The administrator seems very positive, but then he’s got a club to sell, so it literally pays him to sound optimistic. I also wonder whether, actually, the feeling inside the club might be one of relief.

The IEC years (year and a half, in fact) were not a success, and it may be that administration is the best option for the club itself. It rids us of owners who never cared about the club, the fans or anything but making themselves richer. Yes, it’s a tough time, but it isn’t the end. F

or all Latics have been through in 88 years, in typical Wigan fashion, it took outsiders to bring the club to its knees. It should be a warning to all football clubs everywhere. Non-football people simply don’t understand what owning a football club means. The coming weeks will not be easy ones, but we’ll survive, financially at least. Whether the 12-point deduction will mean a return to League One, well, that’s up to Paul Cook and the players.

They seem to have the stomach for the fight. Here’s hoping they will forever be known as the team that saved a football club.

Martin Tarbuck:

Wednesday, July 1, 2020. I’m trying to leave my phone alone, but my mind is whirring...and I’d like to do a rare thing and apologise. It’s not something I ever do on social media, I do enough of it at home, where I’m always wrong.

It seems a few people took umbrage at my initial tweets upon hearing the news and, yes, there was an element of ‘told you so’ about them, and for that I am sorry. With hindsight, I was perhaps quick to vent my spleen at the wrong people. My frustration has been borne out of multiple failed attempts over the last 12 years to set up a fans’ association or trust, something with teeth to challenge the club’s governance. Which is meant as no disrespect to the Official Supporters Club, who are undoubtedly the single biggest group associated with WAFC but, by virtue of being official, it unfortunately creates an issue – when it is the owners of the club themselves – that become the enemy.

The club’s Supporters Liaison Officer has been in touch with regard to engaging with the Football Supporters Association, and I am happy to get involved. But the amount of stick I have had in the past about suggesting the set up of a fans’ trust means I have no issue to float this idea once more, and I simply don’t have the time with a job and a young family these days.

It has always made perfect sense to me to fix the roof while the sun is shining, rather than wait for it to cave in. Of course, like most clubs, nobody sees the need when all is rosey, and some people actually attack the people like me and my fellow grumpy fanzine miscreants for having the audacity to even suggest it. There might be a bit of sentiment in there on our part, such as the German fan-owned model, or clubs lower down the pyramid who have reformed or saved their club from unscrupulous owners.

I’ve also long-since felt that, with fund raising tens of thousands for ‘Joseph’s Goal’ every year, and previously the Anthony Ramsdale appeal, that one day, it might be the football club itself that we have to rally around for. But that ship has sailed for us, it simply isn’t possible for any individual or group off the street to buy into a Championship club, such is the huge distortion in football finance in the top two divisions. Oh for a Stan Jackson or a Jack Sudworth, a fine orator and a rabble rouser.

Again, those were different times, though. I also don’t think it would ever work in this country now, as social media has overwhelmed any attempt to try and drive a cohesive message. I’ll choose my words carefully here, as this is a conciliatory post. We have as many (conflicting) opinions as we have fans, and gaining consensus on anything is practically impossible. When faced with a situation like this, we have a perennial problem: everyone has an opinion, but what is needed is ACTION. But perhaps now we can agree on one thing, that we do need to stick together to get through this.

And if I can apologise and throw my hat in, rather than trying to settle old scores, then anyone can. We have had a severe shock to the system and, to revert back to words I have repeated previously, getting upset about a football club’s results and performances are futile. Even getting upset about the ownership is pointless, see above about the cash required to fund it. What is important, and is the only important thing, is that we have a football club in the future.

And perhaps the thought of losing it can galvanise all of our supporters together. This is a special club, and hopefully we will get through this and there is a happy ending, of some form. If there isn’t, then I’d still rather have been a Wigan Athletic fan for half my life than a fan of anyone else my whole life. Let us watch this play out, stay positive and don’t rely on the EFL to do the right thing, as they have proven time and time again that they don’t give a toss about clubs like ours. KTF. We’ll be reet.

Caddy from the 5:

Well that’s been a rollercoaster couple of days for the Tics,from the delight of putting in ubdoubtably their best performance of the season in hammering Stoke 3-0, to the despair of administration the following day. Oh we don’t do it easy at Wigan! Now the dust has settled a bit, it’s apparent the Hong Kong ‘buyers’ are nothing but cowboys. Go on sue me, I’ve got nothing either!

Jimmy and Migs will put it better on the financial side of things,both lads being proven right that the all-singing and dancing Mr Choi wasn’t what he seemed, warning the fans from the start. But no-one, myself included, listened. As people know, I’m no fan of Dave Whelan for personal reasons, but i don’t lay the blame at his door for selling to IEC at all. They obviously convinced him they had good intentions for OUR club.

Whelan has came out straight away saying he’ll try and help us in what way he can, but buying back the club (as many think he’ll do) is s no from me. Why would,and should, he? He’s done his bit,and a lot more. The apparent reason we’ve been put in administration is quite simply Choi/Yeung don’t want us anymore and want rid. The way they’re doing it in my eyes is immoral,underhand and downright cowardly. But who’d have thought a company with absolutely no ties, feelings or loyalty to Wigan Athletic would do this?

See my earlier point regarding Jimmy and Migs... I don’t know much at all about about the financial structure of OUR football club, but the more I read the more I see that it’s murky to downright filthy., what IEC,Choi and Yeung have done,and are doing.

But I’ll let others discuss that, as I said I don’t know enough about it. So who is to blame for the debacle we’re now in? IEC? Yes. Choi? Yes. Yeung? Yes. And now the main culprits in my eyes with pervious for this blatant disregard for the well being of ANY of its 71 members...the EPL.

There’s only one question needs asking in my eyes...WHO RATIFIED THESE COWBOYS AS ‘FIT AND PROPER’ to to run OUR club? An organisation that’s watched Coventry, Portsmouth, Charlton, Bolton, Bury (who they did NOTHING for in my eyes) and and now Wigan slide into the hands of people I wouldn’t trust with £5 never mind multi-million-pound businesses. For me, they’re an organisation not fit for purpose and have blood on their hands.

But nothing will happen, nothing ever does, just people’s lives ruined by faceless idiots with no comprehension of what their actions have come too. I’d love to see someone held accountable to this show, but it’s jobs for the boys and all backs will be covered,as usual.

The one good thing I’ve seen come out of this so far is the players’ attitudes. OUR captain, Sam Morsy, leading the charge on social media saying they, the players, are bang up for this fight to stave off relegation against the odds. And as we the fans have said for as long as I’ve been going: ‘We’re Wigan,it’s in our DNA to fight everything thrown at us’. We will beat this somehow,of that I’ve no doubt, and hopefully come out stronger and with some creditable owners.. Stay strong lads and girls and remember “UP THE TICS” as always. Right, ‘Bow time...

Statto:

Wigan Athletic, eh? It’s never ever dull. Well Tuesday night was as well as we have played in a long while. Non-stop pressing, crisp passing, solid defending... Stoke were really lucky it was only three. Eight points above relegation, nine games undefeated, over 10 hours without conceding a goal...we are on fire.

Then a bolt out of the blue and the rug is pulled from under us. Now I never understood why overseas investment wanted to be involved in a non-profit-making small-town football club. There is definitely something not quite right about a takeover of £17.5million, then four weeks later the money’s dried up and the owners have disappeared.

Lots of clubs have been in administration, so let’s just hope we are lucky enough to come out the other side. If we have to go back to the club of the early ’90s and struggle along in League Two or end up in the Conference, it doesn’t really matter. As long as we have Wigan Athletic in our lives to support, together we are strong. We will come through this.

Sean Livesey:

How do you begin to describe the last week? With great difficulty to be truthful. Tuesday evening Latics supporters the world over were saluting what seemed a job well done. Paul Cook’s side had put in a fine performance to see off Stoke and reach the magic 50-point mark, which would hopefully go some way to guaranteeing our Championship survival into a third season, and vindication of Paul Cook’s management which, since the turn of the year, has provided some of the most exciting and committed football we have seen in the last decade.

Even Wednesday morning brought no inkling of the bombshell that was on its way, a bombshell that could quite literally rip our club apart. At 12.30pm on Wednesday afternoon it was announced administrators had taken control of Wigan Athletic, and were urgently appealing for prospective buyers to step forward to save the club. How have we reached this point?

How are we in administration, when there had been no suggestion this would be the case? Well if you scratched the surface, you would see that not all was well at the Dave Whelan Stadium. The aforementioned DW, who provided so much stability to the club in his 25-year spell in charge, also underwrote losses during the leaner times.

Knowing Latics would be safe come what may was a great source of comfort. Especially when the parachute payments from the Premier League ended and Latics would have to go on their own again. Perhaps this led to a softening in the supporters’ attitudes. Indeed, when IEC took over, the same level of investment as the club had received under Dave Whelan continued. This season saw investment in the playing squad, and the stadium and all seemed well with the world – but with the same nagging question at the back of the mind: ‘This is all well and good, but what do they want with us?’

The waters were muddied earlier this year when IEC announced, due to the poor performance of the club, they would be looking to offload Wigan Athletic.

Stranger still, the new company lined up to purchase our football club was a Cayman Islands-registered company shell set up by one Stanley Choi – also the president of IEC. The deal to transfer the ownership of the club to New Leader Fund was completed on June 4. Indeed, that day, one of the ‘new’ owners, a certain Mr Au Yeung, in a statement on the official website stated he looked forward to visiting Wigan soon and seeing a Latics game in the flesh.

Oh and if you’ve any feedback do get in touch with us as we want to continue to grow and prosper. So what the heck happened in the last 26 days, from that cheery announcement to where we find ourselves now? The UK directors were not told this was the intention and indeed, until the administrators took over, had no idea the club was heading in this direction.

All they knew was money promised to the club via the owners had not arrived, and seemingly everything that was written on the club’s website on June 4 was a lie, or at best simply misguided. The EFL in all of their splendour, after ‘successfully’ dealing with Bury and Bolton’s ownership struggles last season, managed to score an even bigger own goal by announcing we would indeed face a 12-point deduction.

Here’s the catch, though – if we stay out of the bottom three, thanks in no short measure to our fantastic form since the turn of the year, the penalty deduction will be applied this season. Which could well relegate the Latics. If we fall back in to the drop zone this season, the deduction will be applied in League One next season.

Cheers lads!

That’s really helpful that, a few weeks ago you insisted these chancers (I would use a stronger phrase, but this is a family publication) were considered Fit and Proper Persons to own a football club. Now we can see they clearly weren’t, you punish the club rather than the owners? We shouldn’t be surprised, of course.

Look at what the EFL did to those poor sods at Bury, who saw their club stolen from under them. The only surprise is that this has happened so quickly. I flipped between angry, upset to downright frightened on Wednesday night. I didn’t sleep, and I’m sure I won’t be alone in wondering what will happen to our beloved club now.

In a perfect world, Dave Whelan would come to our rescue and we could continue to fight against the odds. But Dave Whelan is now 83 years old, and there is a reason that his family insisted he sell the football club he had built over the last quarter of a century. It’s too much of a stretch to expect Dave to come to our rescue once again. But now I feel a pain like no other, and pray someone, somewhere wishes to take a punt on a little football club in Lancashire like Dave Whelan did 25 years ago.

We’re not the biggest football club, we’re certainly not the most glamorous, but for around 10,000 people in a town found slap bang in the middle of Liverpool and Manchester, Latics is our world. And if not for my sake, for my little boy...that little boy of five, like I was when I went with my dad to watch my football team at Springfield Park.

I pray he can experience what I did with my dad, a buyer can be found to save us, and for us to continue to upset the odds. It isn’t over yet but it’s probably going to get a lot more painful. From the top of the world to the end of the world in 12 hours. It’s all very Wigan, isn’t it?