Morecambe fans outside the Mazume Mobile Stadium yesterday as pictured by Beyond Radio.

Swedish MP to take over at Morecambe?

It’s been a while since detested Morecambe FC owner Jason Whittingham raised his head from whatever bunker he has been hiding in during recent times and said anything about the crisis he has single-handedly created at the club. The Shrimps Trust tell us he is `uncommunicative’. Local MP Lizzi Collinge told everyone on Thursday, 17^th July 2025 that he has not bothered to reply to a challenging email she sent him a week ago. Local and national media have not been able to persuade him to talk to them etc etc etc…

It’s a familiar story: Mr Whittingham has always preferred to operate in the shadows.

Over the last couple of weeks, the owner of the Bond Group has repeatedly made promises – to sell the club to EFL-approved Panjab Warriors ­by a specified date, for example – and then not only failed to do what he has committed himself to but then carried on as if the promise had never been made in the first place. A mystery last-minute buyer who he introduced into the mix last week failed to make his identity known to the world at large as promised by Mr Whittingham and the `updates’ he promised over a week ago about this latest development have also failed to materialise.

So even though he posted yet another extraordinary claim on the official Morecambe website on Thursday, I doubt anybody expected anything to change as a result of it. This is what he had to say then :

“Bond Group are aware that there is much ongoing speculation around the sale of the club.

We can confirm that a take-over deal is near completion with a consortium of individuals headed by people with genuine football experience, to acquire Bond group’s interest in the club. We can also confirm that despite speculation on the buyers’ identity, nobody from the consortium has yet been named publicly and recent guesses are not accurate.

We are grateful for the speed with which the new buyer has worked with their legal team on concluding their due diligence and negotiating the contracts, given the time pressures the club is facing.

The buyers have funds available to bring payments for the club up to date and we are working to conclude the transaction as quickly as possible.

We will issue a further update shortly.

Jason Whittingham,
Bond Group Investments LTD“

Mr Whittingham’s apparent surprise about `speculation’ is very curious. Even for a man with the verylimited intellect he clearly possesses, even he must surely realise that Nature Abhors a Vacuum. In the absence of any further detail provided by himself, people are inevitably going to speculate. His failure to ever give any detail to the woolly promises he has made about a sale – or to explain why he has reneged on more than one public commitment to sell the club to the Warriors is the cause of this speculation.

So what does this latest work of fiction tell us? Not much we didn’t already know. Last week, he told anyone who was prepared to listen that a single `buyer will make their own statement shortly to introduce themselves and set out their plans for the club over the coming seasons.’  As we have already noted, this didn’t happen. But now – extraordinarily – he totally contradicts what he said last week by talking about a `consortium’ to whom he is going to sell the club.

So who are they?

He doesn’t say.

When is he going to do this?

He doesn’t tell us.

What happened to the last buyer and their bold plans for the club?

Again – and characteristically – there is no detail.

I went out on a limb two weeks ago when Jason announced a hard-and-fast date on which he would sell the club to Panjab Warriors to predict that it would not happen. We have looked at some length on these pages at the reasons why and all of these still apply. So my conclusion is that the nonsense Mr Whttingham penned on Thursday is yet another attempt on his behalf to stall the inevitable.

Yesterday morning, though, I stood with several other people – and Ted the Labrador – in the drizzle outside the Mazuma Mobile Stadium awaiting representatives of the press and TV to make an appearance. They duly did so.

So Jason Whittngham is at long last having the glaring spotlight of bad publicity pointed towards him from various outlets – with the possibility of being door-stepped by camera crews in his own house. It’s about time but as they say – better late than never.

Now – at the risk of being unduly cynical – I thought that the fact that Sky television was broadcasting live updates from the interior of the Morecambe stadium today and thus upping the ante would force our slippery and untrustworthy owner into the open.

He duly obliged. At just after Midday on Friday, 18 July 2025, he posted this extraordinary update on the club’s website:

“An announcement had been planned for this afternoon, but due to false speculation about the buyer’s identity we have received consent to disclose the buyer’s identity. 

The consortium buying Bond Group’s interest in the club, subject to National League approval, is led by Mr Jonny Cato with an impressive group being built around him to develop the club over the coming seasons.

Neither Jonny or his team have any connection to Jason or Bond Group of any kind and as before, nobody from the consortium has yet been named publicly. The current false speculation and guesses about the buyer’s identify are not accurate.

Sales agreements will be completed today (Friday 18 July 2025) and will include a generous payment from the buyer to pay staff and players while the National League approval process is completed. We are grateful for this gesture of goodwill when the club and its stakeholders needed it most.

This sale has progressed at a rapid pace and, once again, we are thankful to the buyer and his legal team for expediting the process to ensure the club’s status in the league was preserved.

The buyers will engage directly with the National League and the fans to introduce themselves and share their exciting plans for the club.

Further announcement to follow today.

Jason Whittingham,
Bond Group Investments LTD”

I’m not going to waste anybody’s time analysing this latest pronouncement other than to comment on one single part of it. Who is this mysterious Jonny Cato? The only one who provably actually exists appears to be member of the Swedish parliament belonging to a centrist party. Of course another one – an associate of Jason’s or a Bond Group stooge (as many people in the know suspect) could exist. In which case, the only question which remains was – would any of this actually happen ?

For all the reasons I have stated at length previously, I personally doubted it. I don’t believe that Jason Whittingham has ever intended to sell our club on the grounds that it is not in his personal interest to do so – as we have considered before.

I was not alone in my cynicism. Former Morecambe FC Co-Chairman Graham Howse told a BBC interviewer:

“I’m a little sceptical in the fact that we have heard stories like this before. I’m encouraged if it means that the football club can survive to tell the tale. But I also am concerned about any legal ramifications given that we had a potential buyer who’d almost bought the football club. So it seems like a challenge but we all want the football club to survive. I’m sure Panjab Warriors will have something to say when they see the press release because they have funded the football club during the last season. They put money into the club on the basis that they were going to buy it. So I’m sure they will have concerns over what that means for the investment they have already made. I don’t think things are necessarily going to happen today. But there’s a limit to it, isn’t there? We don’t have enough players. We have a transfer embargo right now. So we need that to be lifted to allow the football club to function and  give it a chance. My fears are that Morecambe won’t have a football club anymore. And that will be devastating and heartbreaking for everybody concerned.”

Elsewhere, he added:

“This football club needs clarity, it needs to know there’s going to be money in the bank to pay people, it needs to know the football club can function. It has such a massive impact on the community. It’s heartbreaking and now looking at it from the outside it’s even worse. We feel powerless.”

His former colleague as Co-Chairman – Rod Taylor – admitted to `mixed emotions – anger, frustration, sadness’ and went on to say:

“Mr Whittingham just needs to get this over the line, get it done and we can all move on. I can’t stress enough how much anguish this has caused supporters, staff especially who have only been paid a third of their wages – wages are due again next week. It could be so easily resolved. It beggars belief, really. The staff have been tremendous. These aren’t people on massive, massive salaries. They are doing their bit to try to help this football club to survive. And the players (and) the management are still here. From the point of view of holding events that’s a difficult one. Casual staff, they have other jobs as well. And to hold events, you need casual staff. And that hasn’t been possible, and I understand the reasons why. So things like funeral wakes, school Proms, birthday celebrations were cancelled which is more than unfortunate. It’s not the Morecambe way. But there was no choice. Since then, no further bookings have been taken. So cash dries up. We’ve got the pre-season friendly next week against Barrow. That’s now behind closed doors because you cannot compromise on safety”.

Local MP Lizzi Collinge was also at the Mazuma Mobile Stadium yesterday. She told Morecambe FC’s BBC radio Correspondent Derek Quinn the following:

“We won’t stop worrying until we know the sale’s gone through. We’ve been here before; we’ve heard statements saying the sales’ imminent, and it’s not happened. I think everyone is worried sick – everyone’s really worried about the future of the club; obviously, everyone’s worried l the staff who haven’t been paid properly. We’ve been kept waiting; been held hostage all this time. And until we know the sale’s gone through, I don’t think we can rest easy.

There’s only so much hope you can bear to be honest. To have it dashed again and again and again is devastating. Again and again, the rug’s been pulled out from underneath our feet. This new name’s come forward – I mean; I’ve never heard of him. Again, until we see the paperwork signed; until we see the sale go though – we can’t believe it. It’s devastating for the whole town. The club isn’t just a football club: it’s not just where people go to watch the footy; we’ve got the Community Foundation: they work with Veterans; they work with young people; they work with the community. The town should not be being put through this by this bad owner. To see this impact on the people that you care about so much is pretty heartbreaking.”

So when five o’clock came and went and then the evening dragged-on with no further news, it seemed that history was repeating itself yet again.

Earlier in the day, Jason Whittingham had promised us “Sales agreements will be completed today (Friday 18 July 2025)”.

All too predictably, though, it didn’t happen.

He also committed himself to the following: `further announcement to follow today.’

But I doubt anybody who has ever had the misfortune to attempt to deal with Jason Whittingham will be surprised that no such announcements have been made, either.

It’s a very bad joke – just twisting the knife even further as yet more cruel expectations that staff and players will be paid are made one moment and dashed a few hours later without even the courtesy of an explanation or an apology.

My one hope at the moment is that the national broadcasters won’t let him off the hook. They turned-up as promised at Morecambe yesterday morning. They should be keeping on at him – even if it means standing outside his house until he comes out – and insist he fronts-up for once and speaks to them face to face. They should make him explain not only why all the promises he made yesterday have come to nothing, they should also keep on at him until he explains exactly what he intends to do to solve the crisis at the club he owns – and when.

Nobody else can do this – not anyone at the club; not our local MP; not parliament – nobody else has the power. But Sky TV and others have the ability to embarrass and hound this gentleman until he finally takes some responsibility for the appalling way he has been acting in recent times. On last night’s BBC Radio 4’s The World Tonight, there was an extended piece about the crisis at Morecambe FC, including an excellent interview with the Chair of the Shrimps Trust, Tarnia Elsworth. The anchor of the programme mentioned that they had been in touch with Jason Whittingham but he had failed to produce any comment.

Let’s hope that they don’t give up. This man needs to be flushed out into the open and exposed for the liar, fantasist and utter charlatan that he has always been. Then, something just might change. Let’s hope it does – for all of our sakes and particularly those good people who are still working for our club despite not being paid. They deserve so much better.