Bring Me Sunshine

Morecambe FC have become a staple of League Two over the last ten years having been one of the non-league also-rans for decades before.

Dicing with financial disaster in the 1980's, a steady rebuild of the club allowed a slow but sure climb up the leagues. As the club rose, so did attendances. From a low of a couple of hundred in their darkest days to 2,800 as they pushed for promotion from League Two. However the smaller attendances never left them behind and they would often struggle to pull in 1,200 for some matches.

That is where we find them currently, having seen 1,302 through the gates of the Globe Arena for a 3-0 home loss to Newport on the day after it was revealed the club had failed to pay the wage bill and that they were in talks with the Professional Footballers Association (PFA) for a loan. This wasn't a first for the Shrimpers.

Documents available at Companies House show the PFA agreed a loan with the club, secured on the stadium, in April that remains outstanding. They only settled a previous PFA loan in February that had been on the books since June 2013, pretty much the same time as Barclays Bank also secured a mortgage on the freehold.

The club itself was taken over only a couple of months ago. Diego Lemos, a Brazilian based in Qatar, took over at a point a club statement declared the Shrimpers 'virtually debt free'. Lemos, reportedly a former football agent, was stated to be a relative of a series of high profile Brazilian footballers, including being the nephew of 1974 World Cup squad member Cesar, but the only person he has so far brought in to the Shrimpers is a relatively unknown 24 year old Qatari businessman - appointed as co-chairman alongside Lemos.

The histories of Lemos and co-chair Abdulrahman Al-Hashemi are not easily discoverable and it is difficult to see how either former club owner, Peter McGuigan, or the footballing authorities managed to accurately vet them as owners of the club.

McGuigan, who remains on the club's board after 15 years as Chairman, has been largely silent since the takeover. But when the bills are not being paid just weeks later, questions must be asked.

We've seen clubs - and the authorities - fall for slick stories and faked documents time after time. Salisbury City went under thanks to a Moroccan 'businessman' whose only proof of ID was a United Arab Emirates driving licence and Post Office box. The Munto Finance story at Notts County was a trail of false documents, smoke and mirrors. Even Premier League Watford now stand accused of filing fake financial documents.

Morecambe fans will be hoping for a little bit of Brazilian sunshine sooner rather than later.