Wigan Athletic's league fixing: One of the biggest football scandals you’ve never heard of

A few days ago, the mass media started talking about a possible 12-point deduction from the Championship side Wigan Athletic, but it was hardly mentioned why was it all about. The ones who wrote about the issue stated that Wigan was going into administration, or in other words- the owners of the club were unable to provide the needed money therefore seeking help from the authorities in order for the club to survive. What has led to this situation is going to be discussed in this article.

Everything started in the autumn of 2018 and even more specifically- 2nd November. On this date, it was announced that Dave Whelan (former player and passionate fan of Wigan Athletic) had reached an agreement to sell the club, stadium and training facilities to the International Entertainment Corporation (IEC) based in Hong Kong. The deal was approximately £22M. This company is owned by Dr Choi Chiu Fai Stanley or just Choi Stanley in short. Before the Wigan takeover, apart from a successful entrepreneur, Stanley is also known for being a professional poker player. In addition, Dr Choi also owns several casinos and sports bettors’ places in the Philippines. In relation to this should be also broached the subject that on 3 July 2019 Wigan Athletic announced on their website they have agreed partnership and sponsorship with a famous betting site KashBet88 (KB88) which, by chance, is also based in the Philippines. What’s more, this company has been licensed by the Isle of Man which is exactly where Choi Stanley has a Gambling Supervision Commission. This means that the owner and main sponsor of the club have two links altogether- one in the Philippines and one in the Isle of Man. Another thing which is essential mentioning is that the same person has been suspected in fraudulent activity back in September 2010 for high shares concentration. This on its own could have been a reason for the directors of the English Football League (EFL) to fail the fit and proper test (tests which are done in order to see whether a certain person is suitable to be a chairman of a football club) of the businessman but that wasn’t to be the case.

Until the start of June this year, everything regarding Wigan was fine. 4 of June is the time when the owner of the company, Stanley Choi, decides that his corporation is not going to be the owner of Wigan Athletic on paper. Instead, his plan is to sell the club and all the facilities to another company which goes by the name of Next Leader Fund (NLF). The strange thing about the deal, though, is the fact that Stanley Choi, the owner of IEC, is also the majority shareholder of NLF by June 4. What’s even more interesting is the fact NLF had been set up in the Cayman Islands (offshore area) and was established on January 30, 2020. Even without being a businessman, one can acknowledge that it is impossible for a company, which is 126 days old, to generate enough money to purchase a football club. In order to complete the takeover, IEC gave a 12-month loan to NLF worth £28 770 000. On 24 June this year, the majority shareholder of Next Leader Fund becomes Au Yeung Wai Kay- the businessman who originally held 49% of NLF, increased his stake to 75%. One detail, which needs to be mentioned about this person, is that he was declared bankrupt back on 31 August 2004 which again should be a reason for him to fail the fit and proper test. Back to the topic- with becoming the majority shareholder, Au Yeung technically became the owner of Wigan Athletic. Together with him, two new people on the board of Wigan Athletic appeared- Szeto Man Chun as well as Chun Kit Chan were named directors of the football club. Seven days later (1 July) it was announced that due to "significant impact on the recent fortunes of the club" because of the COVID-19 pandemic Wigan Athletic go into administration. Repeating myself but as explained earlier this is when a company, or in our case football club, needs financial backing because of serious cashflow problems, is insolvent and/or facing serious threats from creditors. In order to go into administration, the board of a football club needs to vote in favour of this. This is when Szeto Man Chun and Chun Kit Chan come in handy- these people, who have never been in charge of a football club in their lives, decided to vote in favour of Wigan going into administration. The punishment for this whole situation is a 12-point deduction from the club either in this or the 2020/21 campaign. Questions were asked about why a certain company would purchase a football club and then seven days later put its existence at risk. However, this whole situation could have been all planned carefully and thoroughly.

In the morning of 3 July this year, a secretly filmed video emerged in which was confirmed that Rick Parry, the current chairman of the EFL, had been talking about Wigan Athletic and them getting relegated despite being 14^th in the table by the time. In the video, Parry says:

“There are all sorts of rumours- there’s rumours that there’s a bet in the Philippines on them [Wigan Athletic] getting relegated because the previous owner’s got gambling interests in the Philippines”.

Further investigation revealed that the EFL chairman knew about someone situated in the Southeast Asian country who put a large sum of money on Wigan Athletic getting relegated. As explained earlier in this article, the previous owner of the club, Choi Stanley, owns several casinos in the Philippines and it appears that the bet regarding the future of Wigan had been done in one of his betting places.

As of right now, these are the only facts which have been exposed to the public- the rest is only assumptions. However, for the whole plan to actually work we need to make just one supposition which is that Stanley Choi and Au Yeung are business friends. If that turns out to be true, we will know with certainty that the attempt to go into administration therefore deducting 12 points from Wigan Athletic was made because of the bet in the Philippines to be successful which would help both businessmen earn easy money. This fast money could come in handy for Choi Stanley as the Hong Kong Stock Exchange is on the verge of crisis which could lead to bankruptcies… one of these possible bankruptcies? The International Entertainment Corporation, the previous owner of Wigan Athletic. However, as of right now, there isn’t any evidence Stanley Choi and Au Yeung had done any kind of business together, so this right now is classified as only a hypothetical theory.

Until the end of the investigation process, the fans of Wigan Athletic will be hoping that even if deducted 12 points from the club, they could still survive in the second tier of English football. Provided that, the points will be subtracted during the next campaign… something which is the ultimate dream of ‘The Latics’ currently.