Bruce's Move to Wigan Held Up Over Image-rights Dispute

Steve Bruce's intended unveiling as Wigan Athletic's manager turned into a fiasco yesterday over £225,000 of an image-rights bonus he was ordered to return to Birmingham City.

Bruce had been expected to sign a £2m a-year Wigan contract, one that contains a £1m bonus clause if he keeps the club in the Premier League this season, in front of the TV cameras at the JJB Stadium. Instead the chief executive, Brenda Spencer, announced at 2pm: "Unfortunately an issue has arisen between Birmingham and Steve and until that is resolved we can't announce him as our manager."

The issue is Birmingham's insistence that Bruce repays approximately £225,000 of his last rights deal. Under the terms of a contract he signed in 2004 Birmingham pay their manager a basic £850,000 a year, a loyalty bonus of £250,000 each summer plus a total image-rights payment each September of £300,000. The latter was advanced in full to Bruce three months ago but, as he will not be there for the final nine months of the deal, the co-owners David Sullivan and David Gold want the pro rata sum repaid. By two o'clock Bruce had refused to do so and the move was put on hold as frantic negotiations continued between the clubs.

Bruce agreed terms with Wigan late last week, the Latics have met Birmingham's record compensation demand of £3m and the St Andrew's club have no issues with the £250,000 loyalty bonus paid to the manager in the summer. The tussle over Eric Black's services, with Wigan wanting Bruce's assistant and Birmingham anxious to retain the Scot until they find a replacement, had no influence on yesterday's developments. Wigan remain adamant it is a question of when Bruce is announced as Chris Hutchings' successor, not if.

Their chairman, Dave Whelan, is determined to re-appoint the manager who served him for eight games in 2001 but whether he will intervene in Bruce's financial stand-off is uncertain after having already committed £5m to the deal. Birmingham, for their part, will not terminate Bruce's contract until the image-rights bonus has been returned and, should the impasse continue, the caretaker manager Frank Barlow will remain in charge for the daunting visit to Arsenal on Saturday.

"Steve is our No1 choice and he wants to come to Wigan," added Spencer, who admitted the club have a contingency plan. "We do have a list but Steve has always been the one we wanted. We will have to wait on the situation as to whether we work our way down that list. We have been without a manager now for two weeks and we really want a manager in place by the weekend if possible."