Wigan Athletic’s ownership group says a deal has been agreed to sell the League One club to “a new buyer”.
The announcement comes on a dramatic day for Wigan, with two directors resigning amid growing concerns about the financial state of the club.
Wigan will start 2023-24 on minus eight points after failures to pay wages.
The new buyer has “committed to resolving all outstanding liabilities at the earliest opportunity”, say the current owners.
A statement said that any deal is “subject to EFL approval”.
Earlier on Sunday, directors Tom Markham and Oliver Gottmann resigned after funds “promised by the ownership group” that were due to be paid by 2 June had still not materialised.
Their statement said “with no visibility of when funds will arrive”, their position was untenable.
This means of the initial board of directors put in place when the club exited administration in 2021, only chairman Talal Al Hammad remains.
Manager Shaun Maloney, who is known to be hugely concerned about the situation, was given assurances over funding by Al Hammad and Wigan’s ultimate owner Abdulrahman Al-Jasmi during face-to-face talks in Bahrain last month.
With money owed to HMRC, there was a growing feeling a winding-up petition could be issued in a bid for find out whether the owners are willing to continue funding the club, with the emergence of a buyer at the last minute set to stave off that scenario.
In 2020, Wigan were put into administration by owners who refused to invest any more money into a club that, like many in the English Football League, loses money.
There were fears Wigan might go out of business again and on Friday, fans called for Wigan’s current owners to sell the club.
It looks like their wish may have been granted, with “further updates” on the sale process to “follow in due course”.
