The Plot Thickens.

Well, there’s never a dull moment when you’re a supporter of Morecambe Football Club, is there?

Yesterday, I posted the following update on the ongoing crisis concerning the ownership at teatime (for our Southern readers – about 1800hrs):

No surprise as

I should have waited a bit longer. Just as we were all probably thinking that things couldn’t really get more complicated than they already were, the official Morecambe website told us only a short time later that there was a statement that the newly-reinstated Board of the club would like to make. Director James Wakefield took the lead:

“Rod, Graham, Charlie, Mick and I have just met and agreed that we must remove ourselves as directors of Morecambe FC this evening, given that we stated publicly on Tuesday 1 July 2025 that unless a sale completed that day, administration was regrettably the only responsible option left to us.

 We have also agreed with the owner that we will be on standby to rejoin the club as directors tomorrow to facilitate the sale should it be ready to complete, subject to being invited by the owner to do so.

James Wakefield,
on behalf of Rod Taylor, Graham Howse, Mick Horton and Charlie Appleyard.

Oh dear.

So – reading between the lines – the situation that the club has reverted to is almost exactly where it was almost precisely a week ago.

Jason Whittingham is the detested owner of the Bond Group which has had our wonderful club in a stranglehold for the last seven very long years. Last Friday, he promised to sell it to EFL-approved Panjab Warriors. He committed himself to a precise date: yesterday: Monday, 7^th July 2025.

But, not for the first time, he wasn’t telling the truth – because he didn’t.

Instead, he promised to sell it today: Tuesday, 8^th July. 

But if this gentleman doesn’t keep the latest promise he has made in public (which, on past form is more likely than not), the Board seem to be still thinking about the Nuclear Option – Administration – which they first threatened personally almost a week ago.

They can no longer do this because they have resigned.

But both they and Jason – unless he is even more stupid than past days have suggested he actually is – knows that they don’t need to.

Creditors of Morecambe FC can trigger this process – and the Board knows both who they are and, far more importantly, how to contact them. Jason doesn’t: his only contact with them has been this plaintive appeal to them in general last week: “We do ask Creditors to continue the incredible forbearance they have shown to date to the club.”

So – I suspect – resigning as a bloc is the clearest signal our Board can give our charming pal from Essex that they do not want to have any official position at the club if Administration comes about – and thus be potentially tainted by it.

Jason Whittingham has manoeuvred himself into an almost impossible position. Despite constantly lying to the club; Board; the Shrimps Trust, The EFL, The National League; Uncle Tom Cobley and all, all he has been doing recently is going round and round in circles.

We’ve looked at reasons this may be in recent articles – and these plus more (the agreement he needs from mysterious other Directors of a Bond Group of which he seems to be the only one, for instance) are examined in the statements from the Shrimps Trust and Panjab Warriors you are just about to read..

Despite constant stalling and lying about his intentions over the last few days, Mr Whittingham has a choice which Hobson himself would probably stall – or at least Ask A Friend – before making. (Assuming, of course, that people like these have any friends…)

If he sells the club, he will receive a substantial amount of money: millions of pounds. But it will not be enough to clear all his debts and he seems to have no other way of settling these and keeping his precious Bond Group afloat. So he will face a financial crisis as he loses the Cash Cow that has been saving his other business interests from insolvency for years now.

But if he continues to hang onto it, Administration is a certainty: it is the only realistic way to break his murderous stranglehold on our club.

Administration means, though, that he will get no money at all up-front: he will simply become a Creditor who might never get any of his investment in Morecambe FC back in the future.

So – viewed from outside – this is the nature of the impasse. He seems to think that – by constantly prevaricating – he is delaying the inevitable, which is either going to be bad for him – or really bad for him.

This is what one of the parties to this impasse – the Shrimps Trust – told us they thought about the stalemate yesterday:

But will he?…

It’s now five o’clock in the afternoon and the pattern that was followed yesterday – further delay exclusively by Mr J Whittingham – has been repeated. What did he tell us just last night? Ah:

“We will need tomorrow to complete the sale.”

But how much of `tomorrow’?

He couldn’t possibly be telling Porkies again, could he?

At just after lunchtime, the main party to the sale – Panjab Warriors – expressed their total frustration at this absurd situation with the following statement:

Strong – and heartfelt stuff indeed. Will it have any effect?

Watch this space – I’ve got a football match to attend…