Shrimps Trust meeting: When fans met proposed purchaser

Shrimps Trust representatives met with Sarbjot Johal in February after it had been claimed he was on the brink of a takeover.

That news was followed by online scrutiny of Johal’s financial position, leading to a meeting between the Trust, Johal, Sarb Capital’s Saidi Kawooya and Morecambe owner Jason Whittingham.

After that meeting, the Trust issued an update to say that Sarb Capital had maintained their financial outlook was much improved from the statements at Companies House.

However, the Trust also revealed that Johal had offered no evidence to back up that claim before calling him out earlier this week, given any proposed takeover shows no sign of being completed.

Speaking at the Trust’s open meeting on Thursday, they provided more detail on their get-together three months earlier.

The Trust said: “In terms of interest, we know it was only reported more publicly around January, but I think a few people knew he was attending games from the start of September – like Bristol Rovers away (September 3).

“On February 6, we released a statement to hear from Sarbjot in the wake of a lot of media reports saying he was on the verge of taking over.

“We were invited to a meeting on February 13. In that meeting, it was indicated by Sarbjot information would be submitted to the EFL to progress the sale of the club and get the takeover completed.

“A few days later, the EFL released a statement confirming the information hadn’t been received and, until it was, the takeover won’t be approved.”

The EFL’s response saw them ask Johal to a meeting later in February as certain information it required still hadn’t been received.

Those attending Thursday’s meeting heard that the EFL had said there was no update on the planned buyout.

That has led the Trust to believe that the required information still hasn’t been submitted by Johal.

A spokesman added: “We read the stuff on Twitter and put out the initial statement, inviting him to meet – fair play to him for stepping forward and doing so.

“We were challenging him, trying to get information out of him as best we could.

“He was with a member of Sarb Capital: we believe the interest was via him, he knew Jason Whittingham from somewhere and that’s how that came about.

“Sarbjot just indicated he was looking to buy a football club. Morecambe became available, he was coming to games and developed an affection for the club.

“Unfortunately, while he came across well, on the financial side of things, we didn’t get confirmation as we said in our statement.

“I appreciate a lot of people thought it was a nothing statement but it was a statement where we couldn’t tell you any more.

“We tried to get him on the source of the funds but the answers we got were inconsistent with what we know – and there’s no change to that position.”