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They may be top of the Championship but Wigan Athletic may have to play their home matches behind closed doors after a dispute with Greater Manchester Police escalated. The police force say that they are owed £300,000 in unpaid policing bills. They have therefore decided to withdraw their services which means that the safety certificate for the JJB Stadium will probably be revoked when Wigan Council's Safety Advisory Group meets on Tuesday. Wigan's owner, Dave Whelan, believes that his club should not have to pay for policing outside the stadium. He points out that Wigan had to pay £44,000 to police their home match against Leeds whilst Preston (policed by the Lancashire force) were charged £7,700 for the equivalent match. The lack of transparency about how such fees are calculated does not help, but it would appear that overtime had to be paid at Wigan but not at Preston. Perhaps more important, Wigan have so few home fans that there is a real risk of segregation breaking down, increasing the risk of trouble inside the stadium. The worst case scenario for Wigan would be if they were fined or deducted points for failing to carry out their fixtures. Whelan had said that he might quit the club over the row, but has now vowed to stay on and fight. His best course of action might be to pay the bill and then apply for a judicial review in the courts. Subsequently, sports minister Richard Caborn intervened in the dispute, meeting Whelan, local MPs and the police. As a result Wigan agreed to pay all policing costs until the end of the season with the initial debt remaining on hold. Whelan attributed the police decision to drop the threat to withdraw the safety certificate to a plan by Wigan fans to block the town with a peaceful protest. He also revealed that Newcastle chairman Freddie Shepherd had sent him details of the Premiership club's policing costs which worked out at an average of £12,000 for 52,000 strong crowds.
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