Wigan Athletic administrators 'very confident' of a sale

That's the view of Paul Stanley, one of the joint administrators of Begbies Traynor, who were brought in by Next Leader Fund LP on Wednesday afternoon.

"I think in most industries, there will be people who have no money because of Covid, or they're very nervous," he said.

"There'll be other people who are very wealthy and can sit back and say: 'This is a great opportunity' because, once Covid has gone, whether that's a month, six months, 12 months, the world will return to normal.

"I don't see why if you wanted to buy a club before, you wouldn't now. So I'm very confident."

He says there are two options if a buyer doesn't present itself.

"I suppose there are two options," he added. "If there's no buyer, the existing company, it's possible a deal could be made with creditors to leave existing managers in charge, and creditors may get a small pence in the pound.

"You'd still have to pay anything owed to players, the league and the clubs. That's not something that's likely to happen.

"The club has been well run from a day to day basis, the directors know what they're doing, they're experienced.

"It's just money that was promised didn't arrive... and that's not their fault."