Danson set to take over beleaguered Wigan

Wigan Athletic were relegated to League One in 2022-23

Wigan Athletic have been sold to local businessman Mike Danson, BBC Sport understands.

The official announcement could come as early as Wednesday evening.

The Latics were served a winding-up petition by His Majesty's Revenue and Customs earlier this week over unpaid tax bills.

Wigan are currently due to start next season on minus eight points as punishment for failing to pay their players on time on five separate occasions in 2022-23. They have since missed a further deadline for payment.

Chairman Talal Al-Hammad had initially been in discussions with young entrepreneur Sarbjot Johal, although as he had failed to pass the EFL's Owners and Directors' Test when he tried to buy Morecambe last season, the chance of an acceptable deal being reached was highly unlikely.

Wigan, who were also deducted three points last season as they finished bottom of the Championship, will hope the takeover also means they can come out of the transfer embargo they were placed under last week.

The EFL has given no more details of the embargo, other than it is for failing Regulation 17 of their rules regarding tax payment to HMRC.

That regulation says that clubs will have a transfer embargo placed if they either fail to pay due tax and/or National Insurance on staff wages or fail to report any late payments to the EFL.