Club issues explanation following Roy Keane incident

The club has issued the following statement following press stories regarding Roy Keane and gaining access to the DW Stadium recently.

We feel that there has been some unfair criticism over this issue and perhaps an explanation of our policy regarding ticketing may assist people in understanding the reasons why it exists.

Mr Keane did try to purchase a ticket for our game against Arsenal and was a little aggressive towards our staff when he was told he was not able to. Although we can understand his frustration at not being able to watch Wigan Athletic there are reasons why we were unable to agree to his request.

There are certain fixtures, when the away allocation is sold out, when the chance of opposition fans infiltrating the home end is a serious issue, and could lead to incidents inside the ground.

For the safety of our fans and to restrict the possibility of incidents, a system has to be adopted to restrict sales. Unfortunately, despite having the capacity to sell more tickets it would be dangerous to do so to visiting fans in the home areas and it can be difficult to distinguish visiting fans from neutral fans.

In these situations (possibly only five or six games per season) we allow fans to purchase tickets if they have purchased a ticket for at least one Wigan game in the last five years, to prevent visiting fans trying to gain access to home areas on the day.

Unfortunately for Mr Keane, he chose to come to such a game. Had he given us prior warning, or telephoned us to arrange a ticket, there would not have been a problem as we are always accommodating if we are comfortable that it does not pose a safety risk.

Alternatively, if he had provided his details when purchasing his ticket for an earlier game this would also have avoided the problem.

The system is there for the safety of our own supporters.

We understand that Mr Keane did NOT offer to purchase a season ticket as has been suggested. If that had been the case we would have been delighted to agree to his request.

We intend to contact Mr Keane to explain the reasons why this issue arose and he iswelcome to attend any games in the future.

The club will not be making any further comment on this issue.