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Whatever the ins and outs of its dramatic collapse, the club’s fate is symptomatic of EFL’s ongoing financial plight
In the week since Wigan Athletic were dumped into administration like litter thrown from a speeding car, the tale of some underlying betting scandal became a compelling distraction from football’s real, pressing issues glinting in the wreckage. The EFL identified the cause – the ruinous structure of the game itself – in an unusually robust statement following the belated first public comments of Hong Kong-based Au Yeung, who took over the club then collapsed it in a week.
Rejecting his effort to cite the coronavirus crisis as an explanation, the EFL set out its case for wholesale reform, including a call for the Premier League to share money more fairly: “This set of circumstances,” the league said, “is more illustrative of the wider financial challenges facing EFL clubs, who, without a full and comprehensive reset of football’s finances, including how monies are distributed throughout the game, will continue to struggle to meet the demands of an outdated and unsustainable model.” Continue reading...