Was Wigan's Demise Part of a Bet?

The Times newspaper today it is reported that Rick Parry, the Chairman of the English Football League, in a conversation with a Wigan Athletic fan, said that via a rumour circulating round the football world that Wigan's demise was all for a bet.

The Paper reports:

'Rick Parry has been involved in an astonishing conversation with a Wigan Athletic fan during which the chairman of the English Football League said there was a rumour that the club’s administration was linked to “a bet in the Philippines on them being relegated”.

Four weeks ago Wigan were sold from one Hong Kong-based company to another, both of which were until recently majority-owned by the same businessman and a high-stakes professional poker player, Dr Choi Chiu Fai Stanley.

Au Yeung Wai Kay, a Chinese businessman, has since replaced Dr Choi as the majority shareholder of Next Leader Fund, which purchased the club from International Entertainment Corporation (IEC), a Hong Kong-based, Cayman Islands-registered company, on June 2.'

Yesterday football agents reported that Wigan Athletic were placed into administration with a 12 point deduction for the financial breach (see: Linkedin page, Wigan Athletic Administration but that a caveat was left to consider that it was quite a surprise bearing in mind that the Club only changed ownership on the second of June.

The former Liverpool Chief Executive in a video that was posted last night on Twitter, which shows only his feet, Parry says: 

“There are all sorts of rumours. There’s rumours that there is a bet in the Philippines on them being relegated because the previous owner has got gambling interests in the Philippines.”

An investigation will proceed into the demise of a proud English Club, the BBC on Wigan Athletic reports:

The speed from the change of ownership being executed to Wigan being put into administration has raised eyebrows.

Joint administrator Gerald Krasner, who took over as chairman of Leeds United in 2004 in the middle of the Yorkshire club's dire financial situation, said the matter would be investigated.

"Every administration I have been involved in had its peculiarities," he said. "But this is a first. Four weeks is a record that will stand for some time.

We shall wait the outcome of this interesting development.