Morecambe: EFL club sponsored by Tyson Fury could face extinction as they are left with just five first team players

A financially troubled Morecambe side have announced the departures of 16 players at the end of their League Two season.

The news comes after a disappointing season which saw the Lancashire side finish 15th in League Two whilst also being deducted three points for failing to pay their players on time in August.

At the end of the campaign, the Shrimps lost manager Ged Brannan who departed to become the assistant manager of fellow League Two side Accrington Stanley. The latest development means the fourth-tier side, who are sponsored by former WBC champion Tyson Fury, now have just five first-team players in their squad with pre-season looming.

BBC Sport claims that 12 of the 16 players leaving the club were not offered a new deal, while four players turned down offers to stay at the Mazuma Mobile Stadium next term.

Club captain Farrend Rawson was one of the most notable departures from the team. He turned down a new deal after heavily criticising the club’s owner Jason Whittingham.

He told BBC Radio Lancashire in April: “My message would be if your heart’s not in it and it’s not making sense any more then don’t hold on to it. He is where he is because he’s done well but make it easier for someone to come in and give the lads a chance to build and kick on. On the pitch we’ve just fallen short but for the club to grow and sustain I think the owner needs to make the right decision.

“You’re seeing it too many times in the Football League and higher. Good clubs with a good fanbase and good people around the palace are the ones who get affected.”

The board of directors also penned an open letter to Whittingham urging him to do business with a "US-based potential buyer" to save the club from potential extinction.

It reads: "We are writing this open letter to reiterate what was said to you during the meeting we held with you today, during which you updated us on the critical matters of funding and the sale of the Football Club. Sadly, your future funding assurances have now failed to come to fruition so often that, in the absence of substantial funds from Bond Group landing in the Morecambe Football Club account, they come across as meaningless, and we must take them as such in order to be responsible.

"As for the Middle East-based potential buyer you first told us was interested in buying the club approximately a year ago, you have provided no tangible evidence or introduction during this time to enable us to consider them serious or credible.

"You have one apparently serious offer on the table from a US-based potential buyer which, based on what we know, is the most credible which has been made since you placed the club up for sale over 20 months ago. Please accept this second offer now, so that there is a chance that a sale might be completed, and a catastrophic outcome be avoided."

Whittingham has been involved with Morecambe since 2017 and oversaw the club’s historic triumph in the League Two play-off final in 2021 as the club reached the third-tier for the first time in their history. Morecambe remained in League One for two seasons before suffering relegation back to League Two in 2023.