All this Philippines betting malarkey...

I watched this yesterday and have to admit it sounds dodgy and did worry me a tad, all the 'evidence' for the video though was collected by Wigan fans themselves so could argue that bias will have impacted the judgement there.

 

Fair points. I guess the nervous pessimist side of me doesn't fare well in these situations.

The thing that annoys me the most about all of this is the timing of the appeal, which seems to be all on Wigan's terms. Their owner chose to go into administration. They then agreed an appeal date with the EFL, and were even allowed to sit on it till the end of the season so they could assess how convenient an appeal was, rather than if they thought the punishment was unjust, before confirming that they would proceed.

End result is, after all the efforts to get players back on the pitch again, our season will ultimately be decided by lawyers, and not even our lawyers (initially at least). Then if they win their appeal, it is just assumed that the only difference the deduction made was to their own points tally, which isn't true because a different dynamic to the table could lead to different results. Wigan could've been on the beach against us, and certainly against Charlton. We could've been down on the last day leaving a much easier game for Brentford to win promotion.

This situation is all down to Wigan Athletic, or at least their owner. Yet, they are the ones who get multiple bites of the cherry when it comes to deciding their season outcome. And if the deduction is overturned, they'll have had no punishment at all while creditors could still be facing reduced returns. Pretty sure I'll be done with football if we're sent down this season.

 

I saw something the day after this came out...I can't remember where...that said exactly that. No one would take such a massive bet and if they had someone would have heard about it

 

Brighton have confirmed the signing of England Under 18 international Jensen Weir from Wigan Athletic for an up-front fee of £500,000

The money is enough to cover Wigan's wage bill for the final two weeks of the season after their bent owners placed the club in administration just 20 days after taking over

 

Rick Parry.

 

Great post @leythtyke but I did want to comment on this conclusion. My gut reaction is the same and it's also a view that others have expressed over the last few days. However, I remind myself of the argument I often employ when Mrs Burgundy Red is berating me for continuing to invest time and emotion on a sport that is at best poorly governed and arguably corrupt: Should those teams who follow the rules be abandoned by their supporters because other teams are cheating? I appreciate it's a natural response to distance oneself from an unfair situation that's out of one's hands but wouldn't that be punishing the innocent?

 

Yep, was impressed with that statement

 

It's a fair point, but it's difficult to justify investing so much time and money in a sport so bent.

What we have now, is a club in administration spending 500k in legal fees to overturn or delay an automatic deduction for going into administration, having been able to delay their decision to appeal till after the season ended. Worst thing is, these appeals rarely go in favour of the governing body once it goes to an independent body.

 

Daft thing is, if they win but have no buyer they could start the season and then fold. And we'd be stuck in league 1!

 

I'm pretty sure if that was the case we'd get a reprieve!

 

Presumably if we'd already started in league 1and played matches it would be too late though?

 

I see what you mean. Surely Wigan wouldn't be allowed to start the season without proving enough finances to get through it? In fact, if I remember correctly you can't start the season still in admin from the season before.

 

So from a creditor viewpoint this appeal.does seem a waste of time and money.