Billionaire businessman holds talks to purchase crisis club Wigan Athletic
Mike Danson, who part owns Rugby League club Wigan Warriors, is interested in taking over at the Latics
There hasn't been a dull day at Wigan Athletic for a number of months now - but it's all for the wrong reasons that they have been in the news for.
Their Bahraini owner Abdulrahman Al-Jasmi, who took the club out of administration in 2021, has paid wages late on multiple occasions in the last 12 months, and that has led to sanctions from the EFL, ranging from points deductions to last season's Championship tally to a deduction from their upcoming League One total before a ball has even been kicked.
Al-Jasmi is now willing to sell though after months of turmoil, with supporters hoping that there will be light at the end of the tunnel in the near future.
What is the latest on Wigan Athletic's ownership situation?
Wages for the month of June remain unpaid so far, per The Athletic, making it the latest in a long string of occasions that the current ownership have failed to pay players and staff on time.
Repeated calls by the EFL for Al-Jasmi to produce the necessary funding have fallen on deaf ears, leading to an extra points deduction that will see the Latics start on minus eight points in League One in 2023-24.
It was reported last week that the figure looking to take Athletic off Al-Jasmi's hands was young entrepreneur Sarbjot Johal, who is chairman of private equity firm Sarb Capital and is involved in the soft drinks business, but questions have been raised over his suitability as he has failed to get a deal over the line for League Two outfit Morecambe for a number of months.
According to The Athletic, Johal was said to be investing a seven-figure sum to pay any outstanding player wages for the month, but that has yet to come to fruition.
A new name has entered the running though and it is one familiar to the town of Wigan in the form of Mike Danson.
The Athletic claim that Danson wants to purchase the club and the DW Stadium and has held talks with Phoenix 2021 recently, and he is the preferred choice of the EFL should a deal go ahead.
Who is Mike Danson?
Danson was born in Wigan but grew up in another Greater Manchester town Bury, before eventually going on to study at Oxford University.
Data mogul Danson founded the company Datamonitor in 1990 and eventually sold it 17 years later for mammoth £507 million, before then going on to co-found GlobalData.
Danson has been reported to be a Manchester United fan in the past and in 2020 he purchased a 25 per cent stage in Rugby League outfit Wigan Warriors, who share the DW Stadium with the Latics.
In 2021, it was reported that Danson was the 128th richest person in the United Kingdom with an estimated wealth of £1.17 billion, and that means Latics fans are clamouring for him to be behind the eventual takeover of the club to put it back in the hands of a local businessman.
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