The latics would still blame us if we did get our own place

"those pesky rugby players damaged the foundations for good "

as for whelan i dont belive a word he says

They get relegated and we get blamed? Bring it on

Quote: MattyB "Whelan in the paper, pleading with Blue half to get down and roar their team to victory (Thus survival in the Premiership). £4 offer on for last three home games of season. Attendance - 14,323 C'mon, who's copied and pasted my quote onto Wigan Today forum???? www.wigantoday.net/latics/Pompey ... 0#comments Post 11.

Quote: MattyB "Whelan in the paper, pleading with Blue half to get down and roar their team to victory (Thus survival in the Premiership). £4 offer on for last three home games of season. Attendance - 14,323 C'mon, who's copied and pasted my quote onto Wigan Today forum???? www.wigantoday.net/latics/Pompey ... 0#comments Post 11.

I'll drink to Roberto Martinez tonight.

Bloody Scousers fault.........

When you WANT the buggers to win, they leave their worst performance of the season till they visit the DW.

I'm not sure why people are celebrating. Latics are still five points clear of the relegation zone.

Plus, IL has said a number of times that it will be beneficial to Wigan Warriors if the football team stay up.

That might have been true at the time, Cruncher. We've no idea whether that will remain the case. If the powers that be push ahead with the 'no ground sharing clause' and uncle Dave has a choice between taking on WRLFC or the FA, who's your money on getting the ty end of the stck going to be on? He's already said that 'if we were at the end of the lease we'd comply' which leaves us in little doubt about his 'regard' for us.

The lease is for 50 years. David Whelan can no more show us the door than the FA can.

I don't like the endless crap we keep getting about his ground-share, but it's a matter of legalities.

When Whelan actually ran Wigan RL, then I was genuinely worried. I'm much less so now.

As far as we know. We actually have no more idea on what would happen if it went to court than he or the FA does. That is the simple truth. The courts would decide. Trust me on this. It isn't as clear cut as some would like to believe.

And before anyone starts with the legal arguments of what can and can't be done, unless we have copies of the specific wording in this agreement we simply cannot say. All we can hope is that the legals who were involved in the contract from the WRLFC side got it right. Unfortunately, it doesn't always follow.

I'm not sure what kind of legal precedent there is for a court upholding a situation where one party (the Premiership) has in effect blackmailed another party (David Whelan and Latics) into breaking the law by forcing them to tear up a legal and binding contract.

It's all very well saying "let's not start with the legal arguments", but most contracts, when put together by professional lawyers, are pretty sound. Okay, I haven't got the paperwork in front of me, but IL has surely proved that he's not an amateur when it comes to business practise, and he's the one who extended the deal on our behalf. I strongly doubt that any challenge to our status as long-term DW residents would be the 50-50 flip of the coin that you suggest. The odds are always going to favour those who've signed a legal document.

I've no love of Latics, and I mistrust David Whelan to some degree - and at the end of the day I don't care if they get relegated because they're not important to me or to Wigan - but I don't think we should really sit around worrying in case someone at the Warriors might have misworded a clause in the contract or something to that effect.

At the fans forum last year, didn't Ian Lenagan say it was a 99 year lease and had 91 years left to run? Personally, I can't believe it would be easy to get out of a long term lease like this without some serious compensation.

I am still not sure what the FA is complaining about. Don't Inter Milan and AC Milan share the same pitch? It doesn't seem to be affecting their ability to play a domestic league, cup competition and Champions League football to a high standard.

I actually feel sorry for the genuine Wigan Athletic fans with this. It appears that the PL don't really want small teams (that's no derogatory) in their "club". They would much rather have clubs with a big following, ala Newcasle, Leeds, Notts Forest etc.

If you read Whelans rant, that is IMO what he is alluding to.

Latics are a club built on sand, they were never going to survive in the premiership forever. I dont buy into the PL trying to get rid of them because theyre a small club either, thats just rubbish.

*edit*
Roma and Lazio both play in the same stadium as another example

I suppose the FA could argue grass has a much longer growing season in Italy and Spain, therefore less wear and tear

Saying that there are loads of clubs in england that have football and rugby playing on them and their pitches are in great condition, so it wouldnt really hold up as an argument in court

If this did go to court any decent lawyer would rip FA's case to shreads

There's not much evidence that the PL are enamoured by Latics.

It was okay at first - there was something vaguely romantic about a little club trying to punch above its weight in the big league. But I think a few of the old stagers are now getting tired of it. Latics seem to get belittled in the football press an awful lot. Not just over the pitch, but for their crowds etc - commentators never seem to miss an opportunity to mention the Warriors.

My Latics fanatic neighbour assures me that stuff we deem to be anti-Wigan RL in the nationals is, in reality, anti-Wigan Athletic. He reckons that many footie fans feel our stadium-sharing deal is a sign that Latics aren't really a Premiership standard club and thus resent Latics' presence at the top level.