Another One Lost: Morecambe FC and the EFL's Growing Crisis

In the seaside town of Morecambe, football has always been a heartbeat, but now the club risks becoming just another name in a graveyard of forgotten EFL institutions.

Since 1920, Morecambe has not just been another football side; it is an institution that offers a break from everyday life. Until the 2020/21 season, they had not been relegated.

And then came the decision that may have handed not just the soul, but the entire club over to the cold, bony hands of the Grim Reaper.

In May 2018, Morecambe was sold to Bond Group Investment. In the seven years of their ownership, Morecambe have been relegated twice, returned to the Conference League and have faced dire financial issues.

In short, the club is in football’s emergency room, and its life support is slowly giving out.

A statement was made on the 28th July by the EFL, stating that their Compliance and Licensing Committee had met on Monday afternoon to debate Morecambe’s ability to start the season.

The club was subsequently suspended from the League and has until August 20th—just two weeks—to either get their finances back in order or find new owners.

In the meantime, their first three fixtures of the new season—away at Boston United, home to Brackley Town and away at Scunthorpe—are postponed. These matches will be rescheduled later in the season, but only if Bond Group Investments, under absentee owner Jason Whittingham, can find a way to inject desperately needed funds into the club.

The club has also been put under a transfer embargo for the season and has been removed from the National League Cup.

A particularly daming statement from the National League was: “The committee will meet again on Wednesday, August 20, to determine if outstanding items have been satisfied, and to decide the club’s ability to retain membership in the competition.”

This statement is so ominous, as this was also said to Bury in 2019; a club that later felt the full force of the EFL as they were expelled from the League—becoming the first team to suffer that fate since Maidstone in 1992.

To our friends at @MorecambeFC – you're welcome at Gigg Lane this Saturday ❤️

We’ve been where you are. We stand with you.

Join us at Gigg Lane this Saturday (9th Aug) for free – just show your Morecambe season ticket or wear your badge.

Let’s share the love of the game,… pic.twitter.com/9OvtL6kPyp

— Bury Football Club (@buryfcofficial) August 5, 2025

Morecambe fan group, The Shrimps Trust, have been vocal on the club’s disarray for years. They recently came out with a statement, saying that: “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 Shrimps Trust believe that the only way the club can survive is if they are sold to prospective buyers, Panjab Warriors, or if a “new robust buyer comes forward.”

The English Football League pyramid is in a bad shape. This is not a one-off occasion. Since 2020, six clubs have entered administration. If we go back to 2010, that number jumps up to 18.

Many of these clubs did survive, but some did not. If there were just one or two sides in the past 15 years that had entered administration, you may say that could be due to their mismanagement of finances.

But when that number skyrockets, it is clear that the FA is allowing unfit and improper owners to take over clubs.

There is an Owners’ and Directors’ Test that is run in the FA, but the rules are not stringent enough; otherwise, clubs like Morecambe would not be facing their current threat.

Morecambe lay their blame solely on Jason Whitingham. An absentee owner who has led them into this mess.

Someone has made a load of sausage baps and bacon butties here at Morecambe FC.

The club has no funds, someone must have paid for this off their own back. And everyone is gathered watching the Test.

This is what a community football club looks like.@SkySportsNews pic.twitter.com/wKOAylfxu3

— Sanny Rudravajhala (@Sanny_Rudra) August 4, 2025

They now have two weeks to save their club; right now, that looks like a near-impossible feat.

Morecambe may be the most prevalent current team in this mess, but there is doubt that in the coming years, this will happen again.

The question is not whether the football pyramid is broken. It’s how many more must fall before anyone fixes it.