The Nuclear Option.
We looked at the latest twist in the ongoing saga of the sale of Morecambe Football Club from the detested Jason Whittingham and his Bond Group to putative new owners Panjab Warriors in my latest posting:
Since then, Mr Whittingham has retreated to his bolt-hole in Essex and basically ignored all pleas – from the media, the Board at Morecambe and the Shrimps Trust – to clarify why he was yet again stalling the sale of our club; had failed – not for the first time – to pay the staff on time or to explain who the mysterious `Third Party’ he had suddenly suggested was playing a pivotal role in the sale actually is
On Monday night, 30th June 2025, the Shrimps Trust convened what was effectively an emergency meeting to discuss the chances of a satisfactory resolution of the current impasse and – failing that – what steps they should take to ensure the club’s very survival in the future.
They explored the possibility of the club going into Administration. This is what they agreed:
“The BOD (Board of Directors at Morecambe), the Owner, or a creditor are the only parties that can trigger administration. The Trust will ask the BOD at which point they will initiate this. Based on the disclosed information by the BOD and PW ( Panjab Warriors) about the position of the sale, and the unpaid wages, the Trust feel that it is time for the board to be transparent on the timescale they are working towards in relation to initiating administration.”
They also looked at the Worst Case Scenario: the possibility that Morecambe FC could fold altogether and might have to start – AFC Wimbledon style – all over again as what they termed a `Phoenix’ club. This is what they said about this possibility:
“(We) need to look at options for this, how it would work, and look at case studies of previous clubs.”
They then nominated one of their own Board members to investigate these case studies. The Shrimps Trust then chose the Chair of their Board to contact a named member of the local Council in Lancaster to ask a fairly straightforward question:
“In the event of administration at other clubs, the city council have been able to loan the money to purchase the stadium, to be paid back when a suitable buyer is found, and sale is complete.”
Would Lancaster City Council be prepared to do the same?
Next morning, the Board at Morecambe Football Club convened at 9.00am. Having discussed the current crisis among themselves, they published the following statement on the club’s website later in the morning:
“The Board of Directors of Morecambe Football Club wish to make the following statement.
Following multiple meetings with Bond Group throughout the weekend and yesterday, in several of which Jason Whittingham stated once again his desire and intention to sell his shares in the Club to Panjab Warriors, in line with the sale agreement reached and announced weeks ago, the Board of Directors met at 9am this morning to discuss the fact that, despite all parties apart from Bond Group doing everything possible to complete the sale yesterday, as of last night Jason Whittingham was again refusing to sell his shares in the club to Panjab Warriors.
Because Bond Group do not have the required funds to meet the club’s full payroll commitment, despite being entirely responsible for paying wages until a sale completes and aware of that responsibility and the requirement, this means that wages cannot be paid until the sale completes.
Panjab Warriors do have the funds available to pay all wages, and are ready to transfer these immediately, but they are not able to do so unless the sale completes and they are the owners.
As a result, we have had no choice but to issue an ultimatum to Jason Whittingham at 9:52am this morning, Tuesday 1st July 2025, that unless Bond Group’s shares are sold to Panjab Warriors by 4pm today, the Board of Directors will be left with no option but to begin the process of putting the Club into administration.
We have been crystal clear in spelling out what this might mean for all staff, for the Club, and for the whole community that is built around it, and we have left Jason Whittingham in no doubt as to the fact that his unwillingness to complete a transaction that he has repeatedly agreed to is the sole reason we are in this position.
As a Board of Directors we will continue to do absolutely everything that we can to apply as much pressure as possible to make the sale happen before today’s 4pm deadline. It is now down to Jason Whittingham and Bond Group to do the right thing, and not risk the destruction of people’s livelihoods, the truly wonderful football club that we love, the community that it sits at the heart of, and 105 years of proud history.“
So – at precisely 9.52am today, the clock started ticking.
Who would blink first?
The club has resisted invoking the Nuclear Option of going into Administration before: when it was still a member of League One, for example. Then, the perceived disadvantages of doing so: a definite major points deduction which – in turn – could lead directly to a loss in EFL status among other negative outcomes – persuaded them not to do it. With the benefit of hindsight, maybe they should have: the disaster of becoming a non-league club has happened anyway and the same gentleman whose failure to properly invest in Manager Derek Adams’ teams over the years is still strangling the club to death.
The question – which has been posed before on these pages multiple times – is WHY?
My own theory – based on snippets of information I have been able to glean over the years – is because of what could be Mr Whittingham’s Business Model.
Bearing in mind the laws of libel in this country, I am now going to posit a theoretical model.
So – just assume that a business person owns a football club plus several other commercial enterprises. Then suppose that all of these firms are in serious financial trouble. So the business person’s answer to this is to borrow lots of money to keep them afloat and then effectively `loan’ the same amount of money concerned to his football club – at a much higher rate of interest. This is basic capitalism at work: it’s perfectly legal (although it arguably should not be as – forgetting about the ethics of it – this manipulation of loans in itself raises issues about businesses which are not actually solvent continuing to trade, which is supposed to be illegal.)
I’ve posed this theoretical question to a local financial expert; someone who knows a lot more about these things than I do. I asked:
a) Is this a possibility in the real world?
and
b) If the Cash Cow represented to the imaginary business person by the football club they own is withdrawn, would it make them insolvent?
The answer was – most definitively:
a) Yes – and that’s what is actually happening in reality much closer to home than you might imagine.
and
b) Whatever happens to their Cash Cow club, the business person will end-up insolvent anyway.
So – as this theoretical business person crashes and burns – are they going to take the club which they have been a parasite upon for years down with them?
The Board of Directors at Morecambe had just a few hours to wait before they would find out if this theoretical scenario could actually come to pass in the real world…
As the seconds turned to minutes and then hours, the Co-Chairman of the Board released another statement:
The Board of Directors of Morecambe Football Club wish to make the following update regarding this afternoon’s statement.
New information has come to light, which is currently being investigated, therefore the deadline that was set for 16:00, has now been extended to 18:00.
We have been working diligently all day and are in communication with the current owner, Jason Whittingham and Panjab Warriors.
We will provide an update as soon as we possibly can.
Rod Taylor,
On behalf of the Board of Directors.
The Shrimps Trust also sent another email to their members:
In the meantime, Morecambe and Lunesdale Labour MP – Lizzi Collinge – told BBC Radio Lancashire said she hopes the upcoming Football Governance Bill – which is passing through Parliament currently – will avoid similar situations developing in the future, As far as the current imbroglio is concerned, she said that the Bond Group. `need to get on with it’ and added:
“We really need to get this legislation in place. We need a proper fit and proper owners’ test so this can’t happen again. They’re messing the community and fans around and the fact that people haven’t been paid is absolutely outrageous.”
The new deadline came and went and finally, the following statement was made to the media later in the evening of July 1st:
So we shall all have to wait and see what happens…
shrimplythebestfootball 