Wigan Athletic's administration plight 'stinks', says Andy Burnham

Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, has described the situation surrounding Wigan Athletic as a ‘tragedy.’
Andy BurnhamAndy Burnham
Andy Burnham

The former MP for Leigh called for change in football as he vowed to back The Latics following their administration last week.

“It is such a tragedy, this club means the world to the people in this borough and to have it snatched away with this shock administration stinks really," he told Kay Burley, herself a Wiganer, on Sky News this Morning.

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"I can assure you that myself and Lisa Nandy will fight this all the way, we are not going to let Wigan Athletic be taken from the people of Wigan.”

Burnham wants to see action from those at the top of football so then cases like this do not keep reoccurring.

“Football really has to face up to this on two fronts now. It has to start regulating the money men properly, because it isn’t doing that and hasn’t been for years. We have seen casualties like Wigan, Bury and others, with proud names of English football snatched from communities, and that can’t be right.”

The Mayor of Greater Manchester also believes the finances within the game needs to start filtering down from the top division.

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MP Nandy's hopes for new owners“The money can’t stay in a bloated Premier League, it has to start letting some of it go down the leagues, and the Covid crisis will bring that to a head," he said.

"We need the Premier League to give up some of its billions to football right down the pyramid, because in the end, every layer of football depends on those beneath them.”

The former Secretary of State for Health is concerned that more clubs will follow Latics and that changes must be implemented to stop this trend.

“We are looking at a dire situation for clubs beneath the Premier League, as furlough end those clubs are going to be on the brink, and Wigan won’t be the last. It’s a toxic combination of waving the money men into football without doing the proper checks on them, and the money not coming down to the lower leagues.

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"I think football is really approaching a crunch moment, the things that have been called for, for many years, need to happen: independent financial regulation and redistribution of the riches of the Premier League.”