The Empire Strikes Back.

We looked at the latest twist in the ongoing saga of the sale of Morecambe Football Club as its Board of Directors gave owner Jason Whittingham an ultimatum on Tuesday morning, 1^st July 2025 in this posting:

https://shrimplythebestfootball.com/202 … rd-deploy/

In a nutshell, the Shrimps’ Board told Mr Whittingham to either sell his controlling shares to favoured new owners Panjab Warriors – or they would put the club into Administration.

They set him a deadline; then another and finally announced – in the absence of any outcome to their satisfaction – that they would begin the process they had threatened first thing yesterday morning, Wednesday 2^nd July 2025.

I ended Tuesday’s piece with the words `so we shall all have to wait and see what happens…’

I doubt that anybody – even given Mr Whittingham’s deserved reputation for deviousness yet his apparently tigerish determination not to relinquish an asset which could well be the bedrock of his entire business empire (such as it is) – expected this man to just meekly either do what the Board has asked or not hit back with a counter-move of his own. But what he actually did seems to have taken most observers of the soap opera which has been the sale of Morecambe Football Club for the last two and a half years totally by surprise.

Using the authority he possesses as the owner of our club, Jason Whittingham beat the Morecambe Board to the draw by pre-empting any move by them to call in Administrators. He explained how he was going to do this in the following announcement which he posted on the club’s official website on Wednesday morning:

“Public Statement on behalf of Bond Group Investments & Jason Whittingham.

There is no doubt that the Club is in a precarious position and is at a crisis point. We also appreciate the stress this is causing for all connected with Morecambe FC. 
 
As majority shareholder we are making every effort to resolve any issues that have arisen and are working to protect the best interests of the Club. 
 
Bond Group Investments has started the process to dismiss the Board of Directors with immediate effect in order that we can take control over the situation giving us the required additional time to ensure that the Club has the best chance to avoid Administration.
 
We hope the The Board of Directors put the interest of the club before any personal grievances and during this delicate time of negotiation to save the club, refrain from their propensity of issuing negative statements.
 
The notion that Bond Group Investments is stalling is not true. Bond Group Investments need to ensure that any transfer of shares, in a sale, is done in a way that holds no recourse for either the Club or Bond Group. The safety of the Club’s future is paramount.
 
Our focus today is to work to find solutions to resolve the matter of staff salary and the Sale of the Club to avoid Administration at all costs.
 
The staff, players and management team at the club have all been notified as have the National League. We will be communicating with the Supporters Trust.
 
We are deeply sorry for the distress and uncertainty this is causing. Our next communication will be tomorrow morning to confirm the outcome.
 
Thank you.
 
Jason Whittingham,
On behalf of Bond Group Investments”

I wondered in my last article:

Who will blink first?

The answer would appear to be that the Morecambe Board did. They had the opportunity on the first of July to start the process of Administration at four in the afternoon. They should have stuck to this deadline and acted on it: threatening a Nuclear Option and then not deploying it is something they must now bitterly regret. Instead, they failed to act either at four on Tuesday or two hours later (which is when a second chance to act on the ultimatum was timed to end). Alternatively, they sent the owner a brand new ultimatum.

I’m sure we can all understand that their plea for Mr Whittingham to reconsider his position overnight was – in their view – a fair and reasonable position to take. Surely any sensible or fair-minded individual would react positively to the following message… wouldn’t they?:

“The Board of Directors have, this evening, informed Jason that administrators will be called, at the earliest opportunity, tomorrow morning.  Jason still has the chance to do the right thing, agree to sell his shares tomorrow morning, but that opportunity expires once and for all after that.”

But some people never do the right thing, do they? In reality, by making this announcement, the Board actually gave the owner the time – and the opportunity – to completely out-manoeuvre them.

Now it’s too late for the Board to deploy their Nuclear Option – far too late: the moment to act has been lost. So unless what is now the ex-Board (or its members collectively) have a Plan B, it looks like we all could be looking at a Worcester Warriors Part Two at our beloved club.

I suggested on Tuesday that ownership of Morecambe Football Club is clearly a key component of the Bond Group. Without it, it could well be that their entire business model would unravel. So of course Mr Whittingham was always going to do whatever he could think of to cling onto it. Being put into Administration would have denied him the absolutely key asset it is doubtful he has ever had any true intention of relinquishing. So when he speaks of avoiding it `at all costs’ all he is actually doing is protecting his own interests.

Nobody is going to be fooled by the guff he has written such as `the safety of the Club’s future is paramount’ or his apparent deep sorrow `for the distress and uncertainty this is causing’. Only he has caused this distress – nobody else is responsible. He must also think that either we all have very short memories – or that we are all completely gullible idiots.

I was talking to one of my Morecambe-supporting pals yesterday and he put to me a point I think it is well worth making more widely.

Here’s a part of a statement that Colin Goldring – Jason Whittingham’s closest associate in the Bond Group – made to the staff at Worcester Warriors at exactly the same time they were both actively dismantling the club behind the backs of the very `family’ who they were trying to dupe with the following Weasel Words. You could almost Cut & Paste some of the following bare-faced lies – which have all been exposed for what they were by the reality of what then befell the Warriors because of Bond Group’s machinations – into the statement about Morecambe Football Club which you have just read:

“We are still fighting to support the club and its staff and you are our number priority through this and we are genuinely doing everything we can. We can guarantee we will have done everything possible to save this club and your livelihoods. The accusation that we have been `asset stripping’ is completely false. Jason and I personally guaranteed paying your wages last month and the month before. We took that personal liability and risk to ensure everyone was paid.  We care deeply for the Warriors family, all of you. It’s not true that any of the club’s structuring is for our own gain. If a buyer offered to fund and continue the club if we sold the whole site then we would.”

Excuse me whilst I vomit – what kind of utterly conscienceless individual can write this sort of utterly duplicitous drivel?

So don’t be fooled: Panjab Warriors have tried to buy our club lock, stock and barrel – and not just the site.The only reason they have failed is because of Jason Whittingham’s refusal to actually part with it.

History shows us that the Bond Group wrecked Worcester Warriors for their own gain. Now, the biggest worry for Shrimps fans and staff is that Jason and his crew intend to finish a job they began at Morecambe as soon as they had completed their nefarious mission at Worcester. They started doing so by lying to the Manager and the Board about investment and future plans and failing to pay wages on time when Morecambe FC was still a League One club. They did so again last year as – following the latest round of unfulfilled promises to improve the team and a refusal to invest – the club slipped out of the EFL altogether. Now, finally, the End Game could be upon us. Failing to pay the wages again might be  just the latest step in their betrayal of what they would no doubt so contemptuously also describe as the Morecambe `family’.

Who needs a family with people like them at the head of it?

For the record, as promised – or should that be `threatened’? – The Bond Group was due to make another statement about progress towards this goal this morning, Thursday, June 3^rd 2025. But Midday came and went and it failed to materialise – just as countless other promises to provide money; attend meetings (you name it) have done so regularly in the past as far as they are concerned. But – over two hours late – a new communication from Jason Whittingham’s Bond Group finally appeared on the official Morecambe website. This is it:

“Bond Group remains fully committed to completing a sale of the Club at the earliest possible opportunity. All actions being taken are an effort to protect the club while its sale is completed to avoid the need for administration.

Work is continuing and we still have reasonable prospects on the sale completing.

Working Capital, to pay staff and suppliers, remains on top of our agenda to ensure we maintain operations whilst we conclude a sale. We do ask Creditors to continue the incredible forbearance they have shown to date to the club.

We are doing everything possible to resolve the situation and ask fans, sponsors and the community to continue show as much support as they can for the Club and staff during this incredibly difficult period.

Any funds at the Club or coming into the club are for the Club and no one else.
 
Work continues to complete the sale process and give Morecambe FC the fresh start the club and it’s community deserve.
 
The National League have been consulted and updated on the sale process and, as they require more information and engagement with the Buyer, we would expect them to be in dialogue with them imminently regarding next season.

Bond Group has not been a part of the Board since the end of 2022 and, due to us having to source external funding, we made it clear that any budget reliant on Bond Group would need to be minimal unless others funds were sourced. A significant amount of that funding was from Panjab and also this season’s budgets were in line with confirmation of their continued support. 

There are other buyers interested in the acquisition of the club however as it stands Panjab are the most advanced and so our focus remains on completion with them on the agreed deal. In an effort to achieve that we have organised a meeting for this evening and will update on that tomorrow.
 
We are working to avoid Administration, get staff paid and continue into next season.“

What does this actually tell us, as Shrimps fans?

Not a lot. Among the constant repetition of a woolly intention to sell the club, the only concrete detail they provide is that they will meet with Panjab Warriors tonight. However, they also claim that `There are other buyers interested in the acquisition of the club’. They’ve been spinning this line for years. So who are these mysterious `other interested parties’? Why are there no details of even one of them?

The statement also presents a very curious `justification’ of the lack of investment in the club which has occurred over the last few years. It states that `Bond Group has not been a part of the Board since the end of 2022’. So what? – they still own the club and surely have an obligation to fund it properly, as any responsible owners would, don’t they? Well – apparently not:

“We made it clear that any budget reliant on Bond Group would need to be minimal unless others funds were sourced.”

When was this position `made clear’ to the Board at Morecambe? Yesterday? Last Year? 2022? They don’t tell us.

Why are they having to rely – to use their own words  – for `A significant amount of that funding (from) Panjab ‘? Why are ‘this season’s budgets… in line with confirmation of their continued support’ in a situation where Mr Whittingham has demonstrably refused – time and again – to sell the club to the Warriors?

This admission concedes by omission that the Bond Group’s own coffers are empty, which is what most people in the financial know have suggested for ages. It also implies – at the very least – either that the Bond Group is not considered a good risk by potential lenders or that they have taken a conscious decision to run the club down.

So which is it?

As we’ve seen before both at our club and particularly with what they did at Worcester Warriors, the Bond Group’s actual word is anything but their bond. History has shown us all too clearly that what they say they are going to do in public and what they then privately get up to behind the scenes are two totally different matters: be it the failure to back Manager Derek Adams’ late Transfer Window signings to keep the club in League One – or virtually everything they were responsible for at Worcester.

However, let’s ignore their Track Record for one minute. Instead, let us accept at face value Mr Whittingham’s assurances that he is now going to personally take control of the fortunes of Morecambe Football Club in a way that will allow everyone concerned to live happily ever after.

So, it could well be that – with him now totally in control – the threat of Administration with its massive costs – potential points deductions from the National League; a possible fine; debtors; Credit Lists plus the potentially crippling fees of the Administrators themselves – can all be avoided altogether.  In fact, it is almost certain now that they will be: Administration would totally scupper Mr Whittingham’s plans for our club, whatever they actually are.

It’s also possible that he could preside over a smooth transition in ownership from his own Bond Group to Panjab Warriors ­in a way that avoids any future liabilities to either his company or the Football Club – which, according to his earlier statement  – is one of his greatest priorities.

But will he? Very tellingly – as noted already – the latest statement made on his behalf on July 3^rd merely acknowledges the possibility of a sale but gives no details about how it might be achieved other than an intention to meet with Panjab Warriors later in the day.

In the meantime, though, Bond Group are still the owners of our club. So why – crucially – are there no details of how they actually intend to run the club from day to day?

In the statement that we opened this article with, Mr Whittingham has assured us all that  `Our focus today is to work to find solutions to resolve the matter of staff salary and the Sale of the Club to avoid Administration at all costs.”

So what are these `solutions’? The update tells us nothing other than `We are working to avoid Administration, get staff paid and continue into next season’. How? Jason blandly talks about `the matter of staff salary’ as if it is nothing to do with him. But he personally caused this problem by failing to provide the funds for players and staff alike to be paid at the end of June – nobody else is responsible for it.

So how does he justify this? Has everybody now actually been paid? Apparently not: the update tells us ` Working Capital, to pay staff and suppliers, remains on top of our agenda to ensure we maintain operations whilst we conclude a sale.’

But the fact – as already mentioned – that they clearly don’t actually possess  any `Working Capital is reinforced by the following objectively pathetic plea:

“We do ask Creditors to continue the incredible forbearance they have shown to date to the club.”

So when and how are our current owners going to find the funds to finance our club even in the short term? If they fail, what will happen then?

What is the current status of the few players we still have under contract?

Is Derek Adams still in charge of them?

These are the basic issues which any reasonable person would expect the person ultimately in charge at Morecambe FC to address. So why hasn’t Jason Whittingham done so?

It could be that he’s working on all these problems at this very moment. But if this is the case – why hasn’t he told us how he is setting about doing so?

The absence of any of this sort of information, depressingly, inclines you towards a totally different interpretation of what is going on behind the scenes at our club.

But let’s leave that for another time. For now, we will wait to see what the outcome of the sale negotiations with Panjab Warriors tonight turn out to be.

Don’t hold your breath…