Wigan Athletic faces court over unpaid police bills

Greater Manchester Police (GMP) has issued Premier League club Wigan Athletic a High Court summons in the escalating row over unpaid match-day policing bills. According to media repoets, GMP has threatened to withdraw policing from the JJB Stadium, effectively meaning the club's first Premiership game versus Chelsea could be cancelled.

GMP warned the club it had until 1 August to settle the debt or the force would not police Wigan's first ever Premiership game on 13 August. The club, which claims a £273,602 bill is unfair, said it gladly welcomed the move. It said it would seek a compromise with police that would let matches go ahead while court proceedings were ongoing. Head of Communications Matt McCann said: "We relish this. By no means do we fear going to court. It's what we have wanted all along. We feel confident in our case, which is strong because we feel we are being charged too much by GMP for their policing. We are looking forward to putting our case forward and letting a judge sort out this issue. He continued: "Obviously, the repercussions of their threat do not bear thinking about because it would result in the town of Wigan losing its Premiership football team and all the benefits for the area that come with it”.

A Home Office investigation is underway into police charges for football matches across the UK after club Chairman Dave Whelan highlighted the disparities among clubs - Wigan were charged £44,000 to police last season's home match versus Leeds United while Preston North End, which comes under Lancashire Police's jurisdiction, was charged just £7,000 when they played the same opponents.