Fans urge to ‘ramp up protests’ after ‘bleak’ update from Morecambe board of directors

Fans urge to ‘ramp up protests’ after what was described to be a ‘bleak’ update from the Morecambe board of directors on Thursday afternoon.

As mentioned by @MorecambeFCFeed on Twitter: “The Club is currently prevented from making further signings in the January transfer window, despite recent cup successes and capital injections, due to lack of assurances from the Owner that the Club will be funded to the end of the season.”

Strong BoD statement re the news of likely no further Jan signings.

“The Board wishes to place on record that once again the Club has been let down by its owner, undermining the efforts and hard work of the manager, staff, and directors at this critical time.” pic.twitter.com/PL7lvajXYh

— 𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐦𝐛𝐞 𝐅𝐂 𝐅𝐞𝐞𝐝 #JasonOut (@MorecambeFCFeed) January 23, 2025

“Bond Group had assured the Club that it would meet these requirements and support additional player recruitment in January, but when proof of funding was requested, it failed to provide it.”

Hope anyone who was on the fence and happy with Jason’s claims is now reconsidering.

— 𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐦𝐛𝐞 𝐅𝐂 𝐅𝐞𝐞𝐝 #JasonOut (@MorecambeFCFeed) January 23, 2025

The Club is currently prevented from making further signings in the January transfer window, despite recent cup successes and capital injections, due to lack of assurances from the Owner that the Club will be funded to the end of the season.

Disastrous. Protests need step up. https://t.co/QxyxGnKhRz

— 𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐦𝐛𝐞 𝐅𝐂 𝐅𝐞𝐞𝐝 #JasonOut (@MorecambeFCFeed) January 23, 2025

STATEMENT:

A statement from the Board of Directors.

Morecambe Football Club is currently prevented from making further signings in the January transfer window, despite recent cup successes and capital injections, because written assurances from Bond Group that the Club will be funded to the end of the season have not been supported by sufficient proof of source and sufficiency of funding.

The Club must demonstrate it has adequate funds to operate until the end of May, its fiscal year-end. Only once these long-standing cash requirements are met can recruitment be considered. Bond Group had assured the Club that it would meet these requirements and support additional player recruitment in January, but when proof of funding was requested, it failed to provide it.

Bond Group has informed the Club today that it is working on sourcing additional funds, but there is no guarantee that these will land in time to impact the rest of the transfer window.

The Board wishes to place on record that once again the Club has been let down by its owner, undermining the efforts and hard work of the manager, staff, and directors at this critical time.

The Board of Directors is carefully evaluating the situation and will make a further statement in due course.

The Shrimps Trust had said 18 hours before the BoD’ statement: “As some time has passed since the fan’s forum, which was a great opportunity to get an update on the position of the club and the ongoing sale, we wanted to provide an update to members and fans alike. We will continue to chase all parties and update you on a regular basis.

EFL

We contacted the EFL asking for any update that could be provided. We received a prompt response from the EFL to explain that whilst discussions were still taking place, they could not provide us with any further information at this time.

Owner

We have contacted Jason Whittingham of Bond Group twice in the past week. Jason initially suggested there may be an update pending, but in a subsequent email did not provide any further information. We will continue to press Mr Whittingham for information on a regular basis.

Board of directors

The board of directors at Morecambe Football Club have confirmed there is lots of hard work ongoing on a constant basis in relation to the sale. No substantive update can be given at this stages, but updates will be forthcoming when appropriate.

Media

You will have seen coverage of our plight around the Chelsea game, which we thank the press for. We continue to speak with the media, but there is always a huge amount of football news and unfortunately, Morecambe isn’t always near the top of the agenda for a lot of journalists. We continue to liaise on an ongoing basis.

General

We have had a great response to our survey. Thank you to everyone who completed it. It is important we are listening to all of you and representing the majority view.

We are reviewing all responses and will take a view on next steps around the ownership situation.
We want to take this opportunity to say thank you for all the kind words of support in those responses. It is reassuring to us all that (for the most part) members think we are getting things right. The rest, we will take the feedback and work on.

We will have a substantive response to the survey published as soon as possible, likely in the next couple of weeks.

Football governance

Whilst we continue to focus on our own issues. It is important that we, as a Trust, and Morecambe FC are involved in national conversations around an independent regulator, and the Football Governance Bill. We continue to be at the centre of these conversations, which will ultimately help avoid situations like our current one.

Our trustee, Ben Cassar, spoke at a parliamentary committee meeting, at which we were one of the only EFL clubs speaking at that meeting. Furthermore, club director James Wakefield was in attendance at a meeting at the House of Lords this week, stressing the importance of movement with the Football Governance Bill. We thank MP Lizzi Collinge for her continued support and getting us these opportunities.

Shrimps Trust is the trading name of Shrimps Supporters Society Limited registered under the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014 as a Community Benefit Society, Registration Number 7485

Fans urge to ‘ramp up protests’ after a ‘bleak’ update from the Morecambe board of directors…

@JLeech456: And this guy had the absolute nerve to go on Talksport and claim he’s a blameless victim.

@ryanhackett03:That’s why no Andrew Dallas then cheers Jason mate