Who are wigan athletic?

Formed in 1932, Wigan Athletic are a Football Club based in the working class town of Wigan, Lancashire.

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A club that has always had the fans and local community at heart, Wigan were elected into the Football League in 1978, finally realising their dreams that they set out to achieve almost 50 years earlier. Wigan would go on to drift between the 3rd and 4th tiers of English football for a number of years, until the purchase of the club by local businessman Dave Whelan in 1995.

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Upon purchase of the club with Wigan at the foot of the Football League staring at relegation, Whelan made a seemingly outrageous claim that the club would be in the Premier League within 10 years. As the years went by, promotion after promotion, the claim became fact when Wigan were promoted to the Premier League in 2005. 8 years in the top division later, beating teams such as Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool, Latics found themselves at Wembley on 11th May 2013 in the biggest game of the clubs history; The FA Cup Final.

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Against all odds, Wigan defeated the richest club in the world Manchester City with a 90th Minute winner from Ben Watson, who had been ruled out for the season just months earlier with a broken leg. This was a fairytale for all Wigan Athletic Fans. This gave Wigan Athletic their first chance to compete on the European scale, being granted a place in the Europa League group stages where fans would get to travel and watch Wigan Athletic play in countries like Belgium, Slovenia and Russia.

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Years of instability since has not dampened the spirit amongst Wigan Athletic fans, who won't ever forget that day in 2013.

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After all, Wigan Athletic were always in the shadows of all their nearest rivals, yet managed to climb up to them all, beat them all, and achieve things some could only dream of.

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The Whelan Family sold the club in November 2018 to Hong Kong based IEC as a stable 2nd Division club. Who knows that the future holds.