LONDON, England, CMC –Marlon King’s agent has blasted Wigan’s decision to hastily sack the embattled Jamaican striker who was slapped with an 18-month jail sentence on Thursday for sexual assault and causing bodily harm.
Following the judgment, Wigan chairman Dave Whelan said the 29-year-old King would never play for the Premiership club again but Tony Finnegan was critical of this approach, stressing the player’s right to appeal.
Finnegan also claimed King had been let down by the Professional Footballers Association during the trial, which resulted from a brawl in a London bar last December.
“There was a union that didn’t seem to back him in the shape of Bobby Barnes this afternoon and the chairman of a professional football club that is going to say to everybody throughout Britain that this man will never play football again,” King’s agent said.
“The chairman’s got a choice. If the chairman, which is his right, decides to sack Marlon King under gross misconduct, he would have to put that in writing, first and foremost. Then he has a right of appeal to the Premier League, in writing.
He added: “While the appeal process goes in, which will be on Monday, this lad could be out in two, three weeks, four weeks then those bail conditions will be subject to him being in his house.
“If Wigan aren’t successful in sacking this player and he comes out in three months’ time and he wanted to be signed by another Premiership club, do Wigan allow him to go for nothing or do they seek a fee?”
King signed a three-and-a-half year contract with Wigan worth four million pounds sterling last year but has struggled to start for the northwest England club this season.
While at Wigan, he enjoyed loan spells at Hull City and Middlesbrough, before being recalled to the club at the start of the new season. A Southwark Crown Court heard how King groped a 20-year-old student and then broke her nose with a punch, as he celebrated in the busy Soho Revue Bar after scoring the winning goal for Hull City in a Premiership fixture.
