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| Full name | Wigan Athletic Football Club | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | Latics, Tics | |||
| Founded | 1932 | |||
| Ground | Brick Community Stadium | |||
| Capacity | 25,138 | |||
| Owner | Mike Danson | |||
| Chairman | Ben Goodburn | |||
| Manager | Shaun Maloney | |||
| League | EFL League One | |||
| 2023–24 | EFL League One, 12th of 24 | |||
| Website | https://www.wiganathletic.com | |||
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Wigan Athletic Football Club (/ˈwɪɡən/) is a professional association football club based in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. The team competes in the EFL League One, the third level of the English football league system.
Founded in 1932, they have played at the 25,138-seat The Brick Community Stadium since 1999, before which they played at Springfield Park. Their colours are blue and white stripes, although all-blue shirts have been common throughout the club's history. The club regards Bolton Wanderers as its primary derby rival.
Wigan competed in the Cheshire County League for the first nine seasons of the club's existence, winning three league titles before being placed in the Lancashire Combination in 1947. It spent 14 years in the Lancashire Combination and secured four league titles during this time. It spent 1961 to 1968 back in the Cheshire County League, picking up another league title in 1964–65. Invited to become a founder member of the Northern Premier League in 1968, the club won two league titles and also reached the FA Trophy final in 1973. Wigan was elected to the Football League in 1978 and was promoted out of the Fourth Division in 1981–82. The club won the Associate Members' Cup in 1985, but was relegated back into the fourth tier in 1993. It won the Third Division title in 1996–97, the Football League Trophy in 1999 and the Second Division in 2002–03, before securing promotion out of the Championship in 2004–05.
Wigan lost in the League Cup final in 2006 and won the FA Cup in 2013, beating Manchester City in the final. However, the club was relegated later that year, bringing its eight-season stay in the Premier League to an end. The FA Cup success did, though, gain it a place in the UEFA Europa League group stages the following season. Relegated from the Championship in 2015, the club won the League One title in 2015–16 and repeated this feat in 2017–18 after another relegation. On 1 July 2020, less than a month after a change of ownership, it was placed into administration and was relegated from the Championship due to the subsequent points deduction. After narrowly avoiding relegation to League Two in 2020–21 under new ownership, Wigan won the League One title for a fourth time in 2021–22, but a year later were again relegated from the Championship following two further points deductions. Additional deductions of points were made in May 2023, meaning the club would start the 2023–24 League One season with minus eight points.