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Morecambe co-chairman desperate to fend off administration amid ownership crisis

Morecambe co-chairman Rod Taylor says he is desperate to fend off administration amid an ownership crisis at the League Two club.

Last week, Taylor called for the club’s owners to bring an end to the “circus” that has left them without a manager, a chief executive and with just one player currently contracted for next season.

The Shrimps, who were made available for purchase by Bond Group Investments in September 2022, are facing a transfer embargo due to unpaid VAT and received a three-point deduction recently for breaching an agreement with the EFL related to delayed player payments earlier in the season.

Wages were also a concern last month, although they were eventually settled two days after the deadline.

Manager Ged Brannan left to join the coaching staff at Accrington, while chief executive Ben Sadler is serving his notice before moving to Walsall next season.

Striker Charlie Brown remains the sole player with a contract for the next season, with others awaiting league approval for new deals due to the ongoing transfer embargo, which Taylor reckons will be resolved shortly.

Taylor said to BBC Lancashire Sport: “We have got to get that embargo lifted. For me that is a major priority.

“Whoever sits in that [manager’s] chair needs to know what his budget is, and you don’t want to be waiting until the middle of June to sort this out.

“This has got to happen over the next couple of weeks, then that individual can work with some certainty and will want to build his own squad as we approach next season.”

The search for a new manager goes on, and Taylor said some “really credible names” have already expressed an interest.

On if the club could go out of existence, he says “it’s a very difficult question to answer”.

Taylor added: “I cannot guarantee that things will improve overnight. I have no doubt we’ll have a club and we’ll put a team on the pitch but we need the ownership sorted out as soon as possible then we can plan with some certainty and confidence.”

The club was made available for purchase nearly two years ago, with Bond Group’s Jason Whittingham and Colin Goldring stepping down as club directors, but, despite interest, no concrete offer has been made.

After describing issues around the club as a “circus”, Taylor said that Whittingham selling up is crucial to the club’s future going forward.

“Hopefully he will be up front on that and keep us apprised of the situation as we go along,” Taylor said.

“We only have one issue here – we need a new owner. There’s no massive inherent debt at Morecambe, surprisingly. I feel it’s well-run.

“People can sit behind a keyboard and say what they want, often with no appreciation of what goes on.

“A lot of us live this every day. For me and some of my colleagues, it’s three [o’clock] in the morning, waking up worrying about it, because we’re passionate about it.

“We have to try to get our house in order and only one man can do that, and that is Jason.”

Morecambe co-chairman Rod Taylor said to i: “We are in a bleak situation. It can’t go on.”

There is a threat of administration for Morecambe, and doubts on if owner Jason Whittingham and the Bond Group can afford to keep covering the League Two club’s running costs.

But the Shrimps have been up for sale for over two years now with “genuine interest” within that period of time, says Taylor.

It’s suspected however that the current owner is demanding too much with a source saying to i that Whittingham wanted £5m for the club, a ridiculous overvaluation considering that Morecambe £1.2m last season.

Taylor does state that it has been “way overvalued” in the past.

He says: “Is that the situation now? I don’t really know what he’s aiming for at the moment. But bear in mind whoever buys the club is buying a loss-making business.

“Believe it or not there are a lot of good things going on at Morecambe,” Taylor says.

“The academy is producing, the community sports scheme is firing on all cylinders, the commercial and events are brilliant and have been doing really well over the last 12 months with good people involved,” he says.

“The ladies’ football, which came on board last year, is really positive. There are so many good elements but of course, the ownership situation has dragged on for two years and is really crippling us.”

He says he can’t see the Bond Group agreeing to fully finance the club to move forward: “I have no confidence in that and neither do my colleagues on the board.

The other option, to sell to a responsible owner, with an American group interest. “It looked more optimistic last week. That did fall away a little bit a the back end of the back end of the week but who knows?.

“I understand the owner is currently talking to potential purchasers.” A video call with Whittingham is planned in the next couple of days to get a full appraisal of the situation but it is difficult to escape the feeling that the club under Whittingham is starting to circle the drain.

“I think there are serious discussions with Bond Group to take place early this week,” Taylor says.

“I think we, as a board of directors, need a clear steer on how the owners see it. It may be that they decide to fund it. If that’s the case, fine. But you need that assurance, don’t you?

“A business can’t live hand to mouth. It’s a limited company and it’s got to function like that. We need a clear directive from the owner this week, that’s the absolute reality.”

Placing the club into administration is another potential option, but that would see a loss of jobs while Mo also being given a nine-point deduction for the 2024/25 season.

It’s going to be a tough enough campaign with Morecambe ‘way behind rivals in terms of player recruitment and retention and managerial certainty’.

“I couldn’t say administration can be ruled out as an option, it can’t be,” Taylor goes on.

“That’s down to the owner funding his business and making sure it is viable and it can pay its way. If that becomes a situation where it isn’t and it becomes not viable and can’t pay its bills that’s a different conversation altogether.

“It would absolutely crease me. You’ve got to be responsible, though. You don’t want that business to disappear altogether. It’s the nuclear option, it’s not the option we want. We want a sale.

“But I can’t say at this stage in the middle of May that it won’t happen. I don’t want it to happen, I hope it won’t happen and I hope the club is sold to a new owner who funds it properly.”

Regarding Morecambe’s very own boxer Tyson Fury, with his foundation and gym on the corner and within in. stadium: “He’s great around our local area, he mixes with people, he’ll jog down the promenade and stop and talk to people. He’s very respectful that way.

“But I don’t think there was any real intent to buy the football club. Had there been that would have happened surely.”

“It’s one of those where it seems completely illogical,” Joel Shooter of the club’s Supporters Trust said to i.

“It’s careering towards a path where both parties lose. If administration happens, there are no winners – we lose nine points and Jason loses the club for nothing.”

Taylor adds: “You could get angry, you could get your blood pressure up, you could do all these things. And there is some of that with me. But you have to be pragmatic and look at the bigger picture.

“We have a wonderful board of directors, they’re solid, four of them are lifetime supporters of the football club who have seen it through from non-league level. And we are very together, there’s massive stability there.

“We have got ex-directors, friends of the club who still contribute, because they love it. They are concerned at the moment because they don’t want to see all the work they have put in to get the club where it is sold down the river.”

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