Word Broken as Bond (Group) remains…

Well – they say that a word is as good as a Bond. I’m not sure about that, personally.

They also say that a week is a long time in politics – but the twists and turns of just six days as far as Morecambe Football Club is concerned would have most politicians’ heads in an uncontrollable spin.

It’s Monday, the seventh of July today. Last Tuesday, the Board at Morecambe Football Club gave its owner of the last few disastrous years – Mr Jason Whittingham of the Bond Group – an ultimatum: sell the club to EFL-approved Panjab Warriors ­immediately – or they would put it into Administration.

This was the Nuclear Option invoked by a Board clearly at the end of its tether after years of broken promises by the owner, twin relegations in the last three seasons (after 102  before that without any demotions at all) and the depressing prospect of even worse things to come in the future.

But they didn’t deploy the Nuclear Option they had threatened.

Instead, the Board gave Mr Whittingham fair warning of when this process would be implemented and – in a move which could be characterised as The Empire Strikes Back – the owner of the Bond Group attempted to sack them, being saved the bother by the fact that those who hadn’t already been removed promptly resigned en masse.

Things moved very fast after that.

On Tuesday, Mr Whittingham seemed to be King of the Castle.

But by Friday – as the Shrimps Trust moved Heaven and Earth to stop him finally wrecking our club altogether – he was on his knees.

For the first time since the fateful and very dark day when he took control of The Shrimps, Jason Whittingham finally seemed to realise that all the nefarious plans he had for our club were no longer viable options. He had been pushed into a corner – facing the loss of Morecambe FC to Administration by means he had no control over plus threats of official investigations into the way he was running his Bond Group changed everything.

He belatedly (albeit clearly reluctantly) realised that the least personally and professionally damaging path open to him was to abdicate.

So he hoisted the White Flag and posted the following on the club’s official website at about five in the afternoon on Friday, the fourth of July 2025:

Public Statement on Behalf of Jason Whittingham, Bond Group. 

Bond Group Investments LTD and Panjab Warriors Sports LTD have today agreed final terms for the transfer of ownership and sale of Morecambe Football Club Limited, subject to contract, and intend to complete the sale of Morecambe Football Club Limited on Monday 7th July 2025.

Bond Group have invited former Morecambe FC Directors back to the Board of Directors to support the final stages of the sale process. At time of publication, Bond Group is awaiting confirmation of the Directors.

Panjab Warriors will now engage with the National League to deal with closing steps of the sale process, in particular to convey their plans for the 25/26 season and provide evidence that the club will be in a stable financial position moving forward.

Final documentation is being prepared for the completion, which will to take place on Monday 7th July 2025.

A further update from Bond Group will follow on Monday 7th July 2025.

Thank you

Jason Whittingham,
On behalf of Bond Group Investments

The Fourth of July is American Independence Day. This date marks the actual moment when the Yanks finally managed to turf a King from far away who was bleeding them to death in their opinion for selfish reasons of his own out of the door.

Could it actually be possible that this date could also mark the moment at which Morecambe Football Club was also able to finally cast off the yoke of stultifying control from miles away once and for all as well?

Whether it was or not – what a turn-up this decision to sell was for the books!

What can you say about this?

Who saw this coming?

Well – not me for a start. If I was a betting man, I would have taken a punt on this outcome never being a possibility, let alone actually happening.

For most of last week, I argued on this blog that there were compelling reasons why Mr Whittingham would never sell our club.

So when I read this announcement on Friday – to be honest – I thought: “I’ll believe it only when it happens – and not before!”

I wasn’t alone in my scepticism. Once the announcement you have just read was made, the Shrimps Trust wasted no time releasing a statement of their own. This is it:

I think two things in this statement really stand out.

Firstly – we need to remember that this announcement has been written by people who understand the saga of Worcester Warriors Rugby Union Club and the key role Mr Whittingham and his cronies played in its demise. So if he tried the same tactics again, at least they had some idea about how he got away with it before which could act as guide to how to thwart him this time.

Secondly, they have actually had to communicate personally with this Essex `businessman’ directly in recent times so they knew – from often bitter experience – exactly what they were actually dealing with.

So when the Shrimps Trust publicly stated that “Whilst we hope the contents are accurate, we will work on the basis that are not for obvious reasons” you had to take a step back and think about the words chosen.

“For obvious reasons.”

I couldn’t possibly comment on what these `obvious reasons’ were, if only for the fear of being sued. So all I can do is ask everyone to speculate about what these obvious reasons might actually be.

Broken promises? Downright lies? Unreliability? A history of never actually being candid? A total lack of predictability?

All of the above?

The tides in Morecambe Bay are predictable and so is a lot of other stuff. But shifty human beings – for example – are predictable in only two respects: that they are both completely unpredictable in reality and also utterly untrustworthy (no pun intended) by nature…

Which leads us on to the next troubling aspect of this statement. The Trust wrote:

“We do not understand why it needs the weekend to complete… Staff need paying now.”

 We’ve already established that a week is a long time in politics. But to certain devious, dishonest and conniving individuals, so is a weekend in business…

I personally have no doubt whatsoever that the gentleman who was still the owner of our club last Friday afternoon will have been burning the midnight oil ever since exploring every single possibility himself and his team of `advisers’ will have been able to come up with to avoid – or at least delay – the sale of what seems to be his only meaningful major financial asset to a Third Party just three days later.

We know – from his behaviour as far as Worcester Warriors is concerned and the string of broken promises which have littered his career as Morecambe owner – that what Mr Jason Whittingham tells the world he is going to do and what then actually happens do not necessarily always coincide. If he or his wrecking crew could collectively think of any viable way to avoid selling the club – even at the very last minute – you could bet your bottom dollar that he would immediately renege on the agreement he made with Panjab Warriors last Friday without a second thought.

So it was no surprise when Monday duly arrived and there was no early announcement of a sale.

The hours ticked past until Midday was reached.

No further news.

Two in the afternoon came and went.

Then Three. Still no white smoke from the Boardroom at the Mazuma Mobile Stadium.

Until…

At about quarter past three, we got an idea of the sort of desperate final stand our pal Jason has been reduced to during the hours that had already passed..

This man has clearly never cared a jot about the fate of the people who have worked for organisations he has deliberately wrecked for his own personal financial gain in the past. We saw this at Worcester Warriors – we see it currently at our club as staff and players alike worry about their futures and how to pay the bills in the absence of overdue wages. The fact that they are in this position is due directly (and solely) to the actions of one self-serving individual – and we all know who that is.

But suddenly, believe it or not, this same self-serving individual has developed a social conscience. (Well – as far as his own kith and kin are concerned at least.)

So get a load of this, which appeared on the club’s official website this afternoon, starting with a paragraph which was highlighted in red ink and bold type:

“There has been a campaign of abuse on social media against my family members, including elderly and young – all vulnerable people, including women, who they are clearly attempting to intimidate and bully.

In addition to reporting this to the police, they will be investigated even after the club is sold, no matter how long it takes. As we acquire their details, we will contact their place of work, education or associations as well as pursuing criminal charges.

As social media and accompanying abuse against me and my family has been noticed, the individuals involved have already been responsible for putting off at least two potential buyers who do not want to be involved in a club with a section of such toxic individuals. 

These individuals serve only themselves not the best interests of the club.

Jason Whittingham,
Bond Group Investments LTD“

Intimidation? Including women? Bullying? Well – I know someone who has always `served only themselves (semi-colon or the word `and’ missing there, Jason…) not the best interests of the club‘ who could give us all a Master Class in those subjects, don’t you?

Spoilt children throw their toys out of the pram when they can’t get their own way. Spoilt adults, by contrast, get aggressive and try and frighten the people who won’t do what they want – often by threats they will never carry out. But you know what has always been said about Empty Vessels…

What Mr Whittingham is actually telling us in this pathetic statement is the following:

1) After the best part of three days brainstorming to avoid impending financial disaster, this is the best he, the Bond Group and his team of professional accomplices can come up with.

There’s no mention of the state of negotiations with the other interested parties to the sale.

No time-scales for a decision.

No explanation as to why a sale he said would happen today hasn’t gone through.

Why not?

2) Nobody with more than two brain cells will take his frankly laughable threats to involve the police and/or have us all sacked from our jobs seriously – so why make them? All this tells us in reality is the intellectual level at which this man operates. I don’t think he’s going to be joining Mensa any time soon…

3) Sadly, Jason is also proving yet again that when push comes to shove, he says the first thing that comes into his head – however stupid or fanciful it is.

This particular Captain of Industry has talked about mythical `potential buyers’ of our club for years. But when anyone has asked him in the past who they actually are, he claims commercial privilege and goes all coy. It would make a welcome change to have some details of them for once – not yet more claptrap to add to the heap of it which has accumulated over the years.

If – yet again – he isn’t able to provide any, I think it’s safe to assume that the only place any of these people have ever actually existed is in his own head.

Perhaps he’d also like to explain why – if he is really selling our club (and he has being telling all and sundry that this has been his fondest wish for literally years now), how would potential buyers know that Morecambe’s fans are `toxic’? Someone would have to have told them so, wouldn’t they? Who might that someone be? We all know by now the real identity of the only poisonous individual who has ever been involved in the current impasse so – finally – if what he says of other people’s toxicity is true, why do Panjab Warriors remain so keen to buy our club from him?

What I’ve just written is a rational consideration of the words Jason has published on-line this afternoon. But what he has written is not rational: it is a rant – and nothing more.

When a man is drowning, he will clutch at anything in his desperation not to go under. What he should do is look instead for a lifeline to at least give himself a chance to survive.

Our chum Mr Whittingham has been thrown one by Panjab Warriors – and he needs to grab it.

Any man who doesn’t will sink without trace, sooner or later.

What follows is the final statement we have heard from the beleaguered Mr Whittingham today. With the sale he promised would happen last Friday no closer, this is the Press Release he made later this afternoon:

Today must have been both exhausting and very frustrating for all the good people trying to bring this sorry saga to its conclusion.  They have far better – and much more productive – things to do with their precious time than wrestle with a snake which knows it is cornered but will keep on trying to bite anyone who comes too close.

This particular reptile has lied to us all – again. What were the words it used last Friday? Let’s remind ourselves – and I quote:

“Final documentation is being prepared for the completion, which will to take place on Monday 7th July 2025. A further update from Bond Group will follow on Monday 7th July 2025.”

Neither of these things have happened. But the reptile who made these promises is outnumbered, outgunned and surrounded. This time, it will not be able to slither away and hide in the long grass anymore. It is trapped. With no way out. It will have to give in eventually. The only question now is:

When?

Sweet dreams everybody!