Football club chairman's firm goes into administration

A COMPANY owned by the chairman of Morecambe Football Club has gone into administration '“ but the business will continue to operate.
Morecambe chairman Peter McGuigan  speaking at the fans forum held at The Globe Arena on Wednesday. Picture Garth HamerMorecambe chairman Peter McGuigan  speaking at the fans forum held at The Globe Arena on Wednesday. Picture Garth Hamer
Morecambe chairman Peter McGuigan speaking at the fans forum held at The Globe Arena on Wednesday. Picture Garth Hamer

Property specialists Simon Thomas and Arron Kendal of London-based insolvency firm Moorfields have been appointed joint administrators over PMG Leisure Limited, run by Peter McGuigan.

PMG Leisure ran the 3G football pitches behind the Globe Arena stadium, home of Morecambe FC. It has 11 staff.

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Moorfields said they would “continue to trade the business whilst seeking to achieve a longer term strategy for the company’s assets, working closely with the football club.”

Mr Thomas said: “The 
administrators will continue to operate the facilities as normal and will maintain the employment of the company’s 11 staff until a solution is found.

“In the interim, Morecambe FC will be continuing to use the company’s facilities and should remain unaffected by the administration process.”

The all-weather pitches are hired out to the public and used by Morecambe FC for training their youth development teams.

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PMG Leisure also has a building which houses the football club’s community 
support personnel and match day security operations.

A corporate insolvency 
notice for PMG Leisure Ltd was published on Tuesday in The Gazette, the UK’s official public record.

PMG Leisure is an entirely separate company to 
Morecambe Football Club Limited.

The firm’s other officer is Diego Lemos, the owner of Morecambe FC.

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Mr Lemos, who took over at Morecambe in September from previous owner Mr McGuigan, has been absent from Morecambe Football Club since mid-November.

He was appointed as an officer of PMG Leisure Ltd on September 22 2016.

PMG Leisure Ltd, a private limited company, was set up in July 2010.

Mr McGuigan, who announced Morecambe FC was for sale in March 2016, is a former chief executive of sports wear firm Umbro and fashion company Americana. He was unavailable for comment.

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Before Christmas, two members of the Morecambe FC board resigned – 
vice-chairman Nigel Adams and co-chairman Abdulrahman Al-Hashemi. Qatari 
businessman Mr Al-Hashemi said he and the board had been “seriously misled” by Mr 
Lemos about promised funds to eliminate debt and strengthen the team, and he would work with Mr McGuigan and the board to find a way to 
restructure and refinance the club.