Wigan Athletic plunged into fresh turmoil after Spanish consortium takeover collapses

[ASFN Admin]

Wigan Athletic have been plunged into fresh turmoil after their proposed takeover by a Spanish consortium collapsed. The embattled League One club’s joint administrators accused the group led by Leganes vice president Felipe Moreno Romero of slashing their bid by 50 per cent just days before the buy-out was expected to be completed. Begbies Traynor said the move - communicated over the weekend - would have left Wigan unable to pay non-football creditors the required 25 pence in every £1 to avoid further sanctions and resulted in a 15-point deduction that would have effectively relegated them to League Two. Wigan are currently third bottom of League One and a 15-point deduction would leave them with just four points, 17 adrift of safety, near the halfway stage of the season. The club were relegated from the Championship last season after being hit with a 12-point deduction after entering administration in July. The news comes a month after the EFL blocked the proposed takeover after revealing that Wigan’s prospective new owners “failed to satisfy the league’s requirements” following “significant due diligence on the relevant parties”. The Spanish consortium were given a second extension to complete their purchase of the ailing League One club. That led to a new company which would run the club being registered at Companies House. FLM Wigan Athletic Limited was set up last month with Romero named as a “person with significant control”. However, the deal has now collapsed in its entirety. Wigan’s administrators said the EFL had been informed of the news and that they were now in talks with other parties interested in buying the beleaguered club. “As of 11am today, the administrators have broken off negotiations with the Spanish bidder,” Begbies said in a statement on Tuesday. “The facts are that as late as Christmas Eve the bidder indicated that they wanted to complete the deal immediately and had wired money from Spain to their UK solicitors. This was confirmed as being received by their solicitors over the Christmas period. “The sale contract was agreed, the documentation had been signed in relation to the assignment of the leases with the council (stadium) and college (training ground) and completion was planned to take place in between Christmas and New Year. “However, over this weekend we received a letter from the bidder reducing the bid by almost 50 per cent. This would not allow us to pay non-football creditors the required 25p in the £1 to avoid further sanctions against the club. This would result in a 15 point deduction and would effectively relegate the club to League Two. “The purchaser was insistent on offering the reduced price but was not prepared to conclude the deal unless the 15-point deduction was waived. Under the EFL insolvency policy, this is not possible and the deal is therefore unable to be concluded. We have informed the EFL and are now starting to talk to other bidders who have expressed interest and will provide an update when there is any definite news.”

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