DAVE Whelan finally fulfilled his Wigan dream when he put the last piece of the jigsaw puzzle together by acquiring control of the rugby league club.

The multi-millionaire owner of JJB Sports threatened to walk away from the Wigan Warriors if shareholders did not give him overall control, but in the end the vote at an extraordinary general meeting was almost unanimously in his favour.

It gives Whelan a 93 per cent stake in the club and he can now press ahead with his new £30 million stadium at Robin Park, which he is funding privately, in the sure knowledge that the Warriors and Wigan Athletic will share the 25,000 all seater stadium. His long term ambition is to get the Second Division football club, which he also owns, into the Premier League and follow that up by floating on the Stock Exchange.

John Martin, who is considering whether to continue in his role as vice-chairman of the rugby club or to take up a management position at Central Park, said: "The result of the meeting was even better than we anticipated.

"To be honest when people realised that Mr Whelan was spending £30 million pounds of his own personal wealth on the stadium they knew the future of the club was not in any danger.

"His love of Wigan as a town is second to none and it is borne out by what he has done now and in the past."

Martin confirmed that the club had debts of £4.5million, but they would be paid off as soon as the planning permission came through for Tesco's Supermarket which is buying Central Park.

"The crippling bank charges and interest rates on the debts have seriously affected the way the club has been run. We will be starting from scratch but make no mistake about it the club has to be run at a profit," added Martin.

At the annual meeting Mike Nolan was re-elected as chairman with accountant Mike Colling also drafted onto the board as financial director. The full make-up of the new board has yet to be finalised.

GB centre Gary Connolly is expected to sign a new deal to stay at Wigan Warriors this week. Although there are still 18 months of his contract remaining before he becomes an Australian Rugby League player, Wigan are confident they can buy out his contract from Down Under, scuppering the ambitious plans England RU have of signing him to play in next year's World Cup.

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