The name of a potential Morecambe phoenix club has reportedly been registered for safe keeping in case of liquidation.
On the 5th of August, Dave Salmon (@dpsalmon) tweeted: “Local businessman Nigel Borras has set up and registered AFC Morecambe Ltd”
Registered office address
170 Lancaster Road, Morecambe, England, LA4 5QP
Company status – Active
Company type – Private limited Company
Incorporated on 4 August 2025
Accounts
First accounts made up to 31 August 2026
due by 4 May 2027
Confirmation statement
First statement date 3 August 2026
due by 17 August 2026
Nature of business (SIC)
93120 – Activities of sport clubs
Local businessman Nigel Borras has set up and registered AFC Morecambe Ltd.
Details here:https://t.co/IEadS81LDC#UTS 🦐
— Dave Salmon (@dpsalmon) August 5, 2025
Just tell registering the name for safe keeping, for now.
— Dave Salmon (@dpsalmon) August 5, 2025
He’s a legit local businessman. Local web designer.
— Dave Salmon (@dpsalmon) August 5, 2025
Just to be clear, Morecambe FC isn’t dead yet. The Ltd company is still trading, and we’re still a member, albeit currently suspended, of the National League.
The accounts reporting otherwise and saying how sad it is just for clicks and clout are turning my stomach. #UTS 🦐 pic.twitter.com/Y2mXHIB97L
— Dave Salmon (@dpsalmon) August 4, 2025
Morecambe faces closure due to severe financial difficulties and a failed takeover. Relegated last season and suspended from the National League, the club has run out of funds, with staff unpaid for nine weeks yet still maintaining the facilities.
Owner Jason Whittingham, previously linked to the collapsed Worcester Warriors, has not completed a promised sale to an investment group, leaving the club’s future uncertain.
The potential loss of the club deeply affects the community, with fans and staff likening it to losing a family member.
The Shrimps Trust wrote a statement just hours after the National League confirmed Morecambe were suspended from the National League.
“As per their statements of Friday and today, the National League are now imposing sanctions on our club. We are in touch with the NL, who continue to update us on their planned next steps. The update today is that they have suspended us until the 20th August, if this situation is rectified, we will rejoin the league, and our missed fixtures will be rearranged. We see this as the club now surviving on a pulse, rather than a heartbeat. The club needs to sell to someone before that date, or we will be expelled. If the Club is expelled the company which controls the Club will be a worthless asset and, given the debt that company holds, the only solution will be to reform as a phoenix Club. The Club must be sold by the 20 August.
The Shrimps Trust believe that the only comfortable way out of this position is if Bond Group manage to sell to Panjab Warriors, or if a new robust buyer comes forward now. The other consortium clearly was and is a non-starter, and we believe it was just a mechanism for Bond Group to try and extract more funds from PW, which has backfired and led to PW retreating from a deal.
There have been details published by various parties in relation to court action against Bond Group. It is our belief that either those processes will take too long, or they will not be successful. We have had meetings over the past few days with politicians, and the Football Governance Act/ Independent Regulator will not be in place quickly enough to support us.
Whilst the Trust hope for the best, we are preparing for the worst, and should we be expelled from the National League, we will use the strong footing we are on as a trust, both from a regulatory and financially, to take steps to form a phoenix club in Morecambe. We will rely on members for support with this. If you are a fan of Morecambe FC, and not yet a member of the Trust, now is the critical time to join: https://shrimpstrust.co.uk/membership/
BBC News at 6 report on 105-year-old Morecambe FC, as it faces the imminent prospect of shutting down due to a deepening financial crisis.
By @joelynskey @tgrundy1 @dicko74 @paul_garrity ⬇️ #morecambefc #ShrimpsForever https://t.co/WZP2F9vilO pic.twitter.com/R73CQwQxHm— Dan Roan (@danroan) August 5, 2025
Morecambe FC kitman Les Dewhurst.
“We are all here for the same thing, because we care”……#morcambefc #BBCFootball #dcfc #dcfcfans pic.twitter.com/HPNau6qUJZ— Inverurie Ram (@RichardPopplet1) August 5, 2025
Resident Alison Williamson said, per the BBC Sport website: “It’s absolutely horrible. The football club gives so much to the town. It’s just so sad that Whittingham is down in Essex and allowed to take it all away from us.
“It’s kind of a grieving process. It’s like losing a member of your family that has always been there. Even if you don’t see them all the time, when they’re not there anymore, you suffer and you feel the loss.”
Les Dewhirst, who has been club’s kit man for the past 30 years: “Morecambe used to be fantastic in its heyday. It had everything from small zoos to fairgrounds to theatres and piers. We’ve not got much of that now, but it’s still a cracking place and football is such a big part of it.
“I met my wife at the football. We were second-timers and our kids have grown up coming to this ground together. Strangers stop me in the street and say ‘hiya Les’ and it feels good.
“I don’t know all the names of the people who come here, but I know all the faces. We all come here for the same reason – because we care.
“I’m eating into my savings now. Some people aren’t lucky enough to have savings – some are going to food banks because they can’t afford to buy their shopping.
“It’s been hard watching players leave. There was another one gone yesterday. I’ve known lots of them for years. I feel broken. Numbness has set in.”
Kate Barker, a fan, former chief steward and honorary life vice-president: “This place is half of my life. All my good friends are here. It’s a cliche, but we are a family and we look after each other.
“We always look forward to seeing each other on a Tuesday and a Saturday, and going to see a match. We might win, lose, or draw – the result doesn’t really matter. We’ve never let football get in the way of a good day out.
“We’ll still gather together and talk about the old times, what we’ve done and where we’ve been. But we should still be able to do it here, every week. Inside I’m being absolutely torn apart.”
Chris Donaldson, owner of The Royal Hotel on the seafront: “The winter months are the hardest here, because it’s the seaside. The football season sees us through that.
“I’ve got 19 bedrooms here and away fans are coming from all over fully booking them weeks in advance. The whole town can be full.
“It’ll cost us tens of thousands, easily. It’s crazy what it’ll do to the town to lose that kind of money. Everyone will feel the effect of it.”
Michael Woolworth, manager of the Hurley Flyer pub next to the stadium: “We get around 400, 500 people on a matchday. It feels like everyone in Morecambe is in here.
“It’s a ritual every weekend. In here we see that football really brings people together.
“But in the last few months we’ve seen the happiness taken away from them. We have regulars who have come in visibly upset.”
Former co-chairman Rod Taylor, who had taken off the board last month via video call arranged by Jason Whittingham, said: “We’ve got a pre- and post-cancer group that meet regularly, we go into schools to deliver sessions. You can’t put a price on that. A high percentage of the population of this town is touched by more than football in some way.
“Football is that release from normality. It’s a generational thing. My granddad took me to our old stadium Christie Park when I was about five or six years of age. It stays with you. It’s ingrained. It’s in your DNA.
“I feel Whittingham probably has to raise more money to settle some of his personal debts. I think he’s trying to squeeze more money.”
Pat Stoyles, chair of The Shrimps’ Trust, said: “The lack of communication from Jason Whittingham has been the biggest problem,” he says. “The turmoil has been going on for weeks and weeks on end.
“The start of the EFL season last weekend was difficult. Normally we’d be glued to that sort of thing, but seeing live football again shows to people what we’re going to be missing.
“The social part of football is the biggest part. What goes on the pitch – that’s fine. It’s about the people you travel with, you drink with, you stand with, the community that you feel a part of. For a lot of people, losing that is going to have a big impact on their whole wellbeing, their mental health.
“Some people are already asking if, should the worst come to the worst, we can still go to places together.”
