BBC Newsnights Paul Mason talks Northern - Page 2 - Soul ...

I thought I’d bring to your attention the current plight of Wigan Athletic, an English football (soccer) team who play in the Championship (1 league below the Premier League). A brief history below but please bear with me until we get to the recent news featuring the actual conspiracy to defraud by Dr. Choi Chiu Fai (Stanley).
Wigan Athletic were elected to the football league in 1978 and after many years gained promotion to the Premier League in 2005 until they were relegated in 2013.Along the way Wigan got to the League Cup Final in 2005 losing to Manchester United and won the FA Cup (the holy grail of English football) by beating Manchester City in 2013.
The success of Wigan Athletic is mainly down to a local businessman, Dave Whelan. Whelan took control of the club in 1995. It was Whelan’s passion, financial input and backing of various managers that saw Wigan elevated from a lower division club to a club who competed from 2005–2013 in the Premier alongside the likes of Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool Manchester United, Manchester City etc... Wigan also qualified for the Europa Cup (old UEFA cup) for 2014-2014.
Whelan sold the club to the Dr. Choi Chiu Fai owned International Entertainment Corporation (IEC ) in 2018 and it was announced that Former Everton boss Joe Royle and his son Darren will now join the board. Darren was to replace David Sharpe (Whelan’s Grandson) as chairman, while Joe was to become a director. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/41636508
IEC are a Hong Kong-based, Cayman Islands-registered company which owns a hotel and casino in the Philippines.
It is believed that Darren Royle introduced the Whelan family to IEC and has connections to KB88 a betting company based in the Philippines who are Wigan's shirt sponsors, the relevance of this will become apparent later.
When Whelan sold the club to IEC, the club was in a very good position financially and at the point of sale was debt free.
The conspiracy:
As with all UK football the impact of the Covid outbreak saw Wigan and all other top-tier teams without revenue from gates and matchday purchases, however the league was resumed on the 20th June without fans and Wigan just above the relegation zone. Despite their lowly league position Wigan restarted their season with a 2-0 win over Huddersfield. They then went on to beat Blackburn 2-0 (27th June) and Stoke City 3-0 (30th June). These results gave Wigan Athletic a boost up the table and left them eight points clear of the relegation zone with six matches left to play.
In the month of June, Wigan Athletic were sold again to Next Leader Fund LP. Their major shareholder is Dr. Choi Chiu Fai the same man who is the majority shareholder and chairman of IEC who sold the club to NLF. Initially NLF was majority owned by the same majority owner of IEC, Dr Choi Chiu Fai, with Au Yeung as a minority shareholder until Au Yeung was announced as the owner of more than 75%. In doing so NFL agreed a loan from IEC for the amount of 24.36 million pound sterling. The loan attracted an interest rate of 8% rising to 20% if the loan wasn’t repaid within a year or if the club defaulted on payments. The English Football League applies a deduction of 12 points for any club going in to administration (this is important). This will be applied at the end of the current season if Wigan Athletic finish above the relegation zone or in the next season if Wigan Athletic get relegated. Currently a 12 points deduction puts Wigan Athletic firmly at the bottom of the league and makes them favourites to be relegated
After the takeover had been agreed and ratified by the English Football League (EFL) the club was put in to administration, this was 7 days after the deal was done. The reasons for the club being put in to administration was stated as Covid, Brexit and loss-making finances of the Championship.
Wigan Athletic fans rallied around to investigate Choi and Yeung to see what they could dig up and one Wigan fan confronted EFL chairman Rick Parry and secretly filmed him saying that administration was linked with a bet in Philippines on Wigan being relegated. A single bet may be stretching it a bit but playing the exchanges knowing that at least one club is guaranteed to go down is not. As unbelievable as it sounds it does look like the plan was to cash in on Wigan Athletic being relegated but after we restarted the season with 3 straight wins lifting Wigan right out of the relegation zone the only option open to them was to put the club in to administration guaranteeing that Wigan would have 12 points (equal to 4 wins) deducted.
We know that Dr. Choi Chiu Fai (Stanley) is a high stakes poker play and a major gambler and that he has been involved in quite a few ‘dodgy dealings’ in the past. He also appears in the Panama Papers ( https://offshoreleaks.icij.org/nodes/12163042 ) but so far our efforts to track down Au Yeung haven’t been that successful. It should also be noted that for someone to own a football club in England they need to pass a ‘fit and proper' test administered by the EFL. I cannot see a reason that even a cursory glance at the takeover would not have raised multiple red flags.
We now have the support from our local MP and the leader of the opposition but I cannot express in words how much this club means to the community, a true family club left devastated by Dr Choi Chiu Fai and Au Yeung. I reach out to the autists, fellow conspiracy people and justice seekers to help us fight this and dig up all you can find.
We are all working hard to raise funds to try and get the club through to the end of the season but all I'm asking for is any information you may have on the main protagonists or associates (unless of course you want to donate). We hope that we can survive as a club and plan to use all the relevant evidence we can gather to help us to to appeal the 12 points deduction.
I realise that there is a large contingent from across the pond and we play football with different shaped balls but any help at all will be really appreciated. I'd also appreciate any suggestions on how we could get the information of our current plight to more people.
Links:
Rick Parry video : https://twitter.com/i/status/1278729830645850113
Request for investigation : https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/53309675
Fan lettesummary : https://twitter.com/JayWhittle6/status/1278616643724328960/photo/1
Crowdfunder : https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/official-wigan-athletic-football-club-fundraiser
TLDR: Help wanted in investigating a dodgy loan\betting scam relating to an English football club involving Hong Kong businessmen(?) and a very suspect review of the owner by the English Football League.
PN: I had to create a new account as I can't login with my old one (not that I ever had anything worth posting).