The Morecambe FC Board of Directors has issued a statement in which they have given the Bond Group until 4pm this afternoon to complete the sale of the club to Panjab Warriors.
The Board of Directors of Morecambe Football Club wish to make the following statement.
Following
multiple meetings with Bond Group throughout the weekend and yesterday,
in several of which Jason Whittingham stated once again his desire and
intention to sell his shares in the Club to Panjab Warriors, in line
with the sale agreement reached and announced weeks ago, the Board of
Directors met at 9am this morning to discuss the fact that, despite all
parties apart from Bond Group doing everything possible to complete the
sale yesterday, as of last night Jason Whittingham was again refusing to
sell his shares in the club to Panjab Warriors.
Because Bond
Group do not have the required funds to meet the club's full payroll
commitment, despite being entirely responsible for paying wages until a
sale completes and aware of that responsibility and the requirement,
this means that wages cannot be paid until the sale completes.
Panjab
Warriors do have the funds available to pay all wages, and are ready to
transfer these immediately, but they are not able to do so unless the
sale completes and they are the owners.
As a result, we have had
no choice but to issue an ultimatum to Jason Whittingham at 9:52am this
morning, Tuesday 1st July 2025, that unless Bond Group's shares are
sold to Panjab Warriors by 4pm today, the Board of Directors will be
left with no option but to begin the process of putting the Club into
administration.
We have been crystal clear in spelling out what
this might mean for all staff, for the Club, and for the whole community
that is built around it, and we have left Jason Whittingham in no doubt
as to the fact that his unwillingness to complete a transaction that he
has repeatedly agreed to is the sole reason we are in this position.
As
a Board of Directors we will continue to do absolutely everything that
we can to apply as much pressure as possible to make the sale happen
before today's 4pm deadline. It is now down to Jason Whittingham and
Bond Group to do the right thing, and not risk the destruction of
people's livelihoods, the truly wonderful football club that we love,
the community that it sits at the heart of, and 105 years of proud
history.