Amid an announcement by the Kenyan government that betting “almost destroyed the country”, English club Wigan Athletic has announced it will investigate reports that the team’s recent woes off the pitch have a direct link to gambling.
Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i said on Friday the government would not relent on the betting laws which have been described as stringent by a group of stakeholders.
“We are not going back on that policy because we want sanity in Kenya. Betting almost destroyed our country. Criminals and money launderers thrived. Some came from as far as Eastern Europe and did what they would not attempt in their countries,” explained Matiang’i.
Meanwhile, Wigan suffered relegation to the third-tier of English football after the club went into administration last week.
It was later revealed that someone has earlier placed a big bet on the club being relegated.
The reports gained more credibility after English Football League (EFL) chairman Rick Parry was secretly filmed telling a Wigan supporter there was a rumour Wigan’s financial woes, which led to the relegation, was connected to a ‘bet in the Philippines on them being relegated’.
The situation gets more interesting when you consider Wigan were sold from a Hong Kong-based company to another four weeks ago. The club’s current owner is a high-stakes poker player.
If the 2013 FA Cup winners are relegated, the sanction will be applied to the start of their League One campaign in 2020-21 but if their results are good enough to stay up, it will be applied to the final 2019-20 table instead.
Wigan are currently in 14th place in the second tier on 50 points after a fine recent run – a 12-point drop would send them bottom and four points adrift of safety.
On June 24, Hong Kong businessman Au-yeung Wai-kay was registered as the owner of more than 75 per cent of the club’s holding company. The English Football League (EFL) approved the sale to Au-yeung’s New Leader Fund consortium (NLF) on June 4.
Paul Stanley, Gerald Krasner and Dean Watson of insolvency firm Begbies Traynor have now been appointed as joint administrators.
“Obviously the suspension of the Championship season due to Covid-19 has had a significant impact on the recent fortunes of the club.”
“And I have no idea about the depths of the club’s financial problems and how much they owe.
Unlike the Premier League, the English second tier cannot rely on billions in television rights deals to mitigate that financial blow.
Wigan, who were in the Premier League as recently as 2013, have six games to play in the current season, which resumed on June 20.
The club dropped down into League One in 2015 but made an immediate return to the Championship.
Wigan recorded a net loss of £9.2 million (US$11.4 million) in their most recent annual accounts for the year ending June 30, 2019.
The club were owned by JJB Sports co-founder Whelan until November 2018, when he and his family sold to the Hong Kong-based International Entertainment Corporation (IEC), who sold the club on to NLF just weeks ago.
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