David Sharpe (football club chairman)
David Sharpe (born 11 May 1991[1]) has been the chairman of English football club Wigan Athletic since March 2015.
Sharpe was born in Wigan. He was educated at Shrewsbury School, and then studied business at Oxford Brookes University.[1]
Sharpe's grandfather Dave Whelan took control of Wigan Athletic in February 1995, when the club was in the Football League Third Division, then the fourth tier of English football. The club finished fourth from bottom in 1993-94, under threat of relegation to the non-league Football Conference. Having taken control of the club, under Whelan it was promoted to the Second Division in 1997, the First Division in 2003 (renamed the Championship from 2004-5), and to the Premier League in 2005. Wigan won the FA Cup on 11 May 2013, but was also relegated to the Championship at the end of the 2012-13 season. The club failed to secure immediate promotion in 2013-14, and was relegated to League One in 2015.
The Whelan family continues to own all of the shares in the company that controls Wigan Athletic. Sharpe left university before completing his degree to work for his grandfather at the club. He became a director at Wigan Athletic in December 2014, while the club was in the Championship, and was appointed as chairman on his grandfather's resignation in March 2015, shortly before it was relegated to League One. At age 23, he became one of the world's youngest football bosses.[2][3]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Meet our new chairman, David Sharpe, Wigan FC, 10 March 2015
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External links
- @DavidSharpe91, Twitter
