Breaking Point.

The Ownership issue which has plagued Morecambe Football Club for literally years reached a potential Breaking Point yesterday – Friday, 27^th June 2025.

The pattern of domination by the Bond Group and Jason Whittingham of our club has led directly to the two relegations Morecambe have suffered during the last three years due to a long-term lack of investment in the team.

For the last few years, rumours of take-overs – by some alleged Indian Soft Drinks Magnate; an unidentified consortium from the USA and other shadowy individuals and organisations – have come and gone with depressing regularity only to disappear without trace as Mr Whittingham continued to hold onto the purse strings and then tightened them to a point of strangulation year after underperforming year.

The Board at Morecambe and others have been prone to get over-excited about the possibility of a New Dawn from time to time – only for nothing then to change. But – on 6^th June 2025, the following message appeared on the official Morecambe website:

“Panjab Warriors is delighted to announce that it has received clearance from the English Football League (EFL) to proceed with the acquisition of Morecambe Football Club — marking the beginning of an exciting new chapter in the club’s proud history. Kuljeet Singh Momi and his Panjab Warriors team will now finalise the deal in the coming days.

Since mid-2024, Panjab Warriors have been providing financial support and outlining a vision built on sustainability, inclusivity, and long-term success.

“This is more than a business venture; it’s a commitment to the fans, the town, and the future of Morecambe FC,” said Gurpreet Singh, Head of Communications for Panjab Warriors. “Our aim is to build upon the club’s rich heritage, ensuring stability and fostering unity across all parts of the community. Panjab Warriors would like to extend their thanks to the club and its Board of Directors for their co-operation in obtaining EFL approval, and also to the EFL for their patience and support in getting to this stage”.

However, the first – and very important thing – to notice is that it is merely an intention to buy the club: that’s very different to an actual sale: when this announcement was made, the transfer of ownership was not a done deal.

So the alarm bells started to ring anew when – over two weeks after the announcement was made – no updates about the sale promised `in the coming days’ actually appeared. What did appear, however – on the notoriously fickle and unreliable usual social media sites – were rumours about last-minute glitches which were stopping the sale progressing. There were no hard facts but I suspect that the suggestion that the Warriors were looking to have the considerable financial investment they have already made in Morecambe FC to be knocked-off the final selling price was likely to be one of the sticking points.

But this all changed yesterday as a couple of Bombshells were dropped; the first on the official website by the Board (B.o.D.) of Morecambe Football Club; the second – as a response – by Panjab Warriors themselves.   

So let’s have a look at these now:

“The Board of Directors of Morecambe Football Club wish to make the following statement.

Bond Group Investments Limited, despite agreeing a sale with Panjab Warriors, giving the Board assurances for more than a year that they intend to sell to Panjab Warriors, and working with Panjab Warriors to enable them to gain EFL clearance for the acquisition to proceed on 6th June 2025, now appear to be considering reneging on the deal and attempting to engage with alternative buyers, on the same day that they have failed to provide the funds required to meet the Club’s June payroll, despite understanding exactly what that requirement is.

They have also, at the last minute, informed the Board of Directors and Panjab Warriors that they are not actually in a position to transfer their shares to a buyer without consent from an unspecified third party.

Bond Group Investments Limited are playing with people’s livelihoods, threatening the very existence of this proud club, and risking serious damage to the community it serves.

They have consistently proved to be deceitful, and the Board of Directors call upon them to, for once, do the right thing and sell the club immediately to Panjab Warriors, the only potential buyer that has passed the EFL’s fit and proper test and proved willing to engage properly with a sale process that has now been ongoing for over two and a half years.

The Board of Directors have, once again, considered resigning, and only remain in post to attempt to protect the interests of the club, staff and everyone associated with it.“

This is strong stuff – and clearly heart-felt as years of dealing with a man as  slippery as Jason Whittingham has always been clearly has finally got to the B.o.D.

Within a very short time, Panjab Warriors responded with this even stronger indictment of Morecambe’s current owner:

Well – that’s pretty clear, isn’t it? Sadly, attempts to ‘implore Bond Group to honour the agreed terms’ and protestations about the way its owner is `displaying a shocking disregard for the livelihoods of those people who serve the club day in, say out’ are like water off a duck’s back to people in the mould of Jason Whittingham. He doesn’t have a conscience to appeal to as far as other people’s lives are concerned for a start.  At Worcester Warriors, countless individuals: players, staff and match day caterers etc etc lost their livelihoods overnight in one man’s blind ambition to enrich himself. Other people and their livelihoods are irrelevant to selfish, devious, Thatcherite narcissists such as these. His pursuit of the maximum personal advantage Trumps (no comparison intended but you get my drift…) all other considerations as far as he is concerned. As the Iron Lady once so memorably wrote, after all, only self-interest matters because: “There is no such thing as society”. 

So our club teeters on the brink of oblivion as this brinksmanship to extort a few more shekels at the last possible moment hangs like the sword of Damocles above it. The failure to pay staff yet again will inevitably attract the attention of National League administrators. I would expect them – perfectly reasonably – to be seeking assurances as to our club’s future financial viability at the very least. As Manager Derek Adams yet again faces a situation where players he would like to sign are slipping through his fingers because he is unable to offer them meaningful contracts, a failure to guarantee the club’s viability which the  National League will be seeking proof of could cost us our place in the fifth tier of English football altogether.  

Then what will happen? 

The Shrimps Trust responded immediately to the latest bombshells with this statement of their own:

So how has the man responsible for the latest imbroglio responded to another situation entirely of his making?

Even though he has been contacted by the media for comment, the Essex Barrowboy businessman who holds the fate of Morecambe Football Club in his hands has said precisely nothing. Following a pattern which was established first at Worcester and now in Morecambe, he has lobbed a grenade into the mix and then retreated for cover as other people are left to pick up the pieces. How utterly spineless…

So – as if it wasn’t already blindingly obvious – I would suggest this slogan for the group headed by the delightful Mr Whittingham: 

Our word is definitely NOT our Bond!!!