A DEAL has been struck which will see Morton fans become the club's second largest shareholder - and £2.5 million of debt written off.

Local firm Golden Casket, which owns 90 per cent of the Cappielow side, has agreed to give a 15 per cent stake to Morton Club Together (MCT), the supporters' group recently founded by season ticket holder Graham McLennan of Port Glasgow.

It is part of a move to generate fresh investment in the first team and put the club on a more stable financial footing by shifting towards a fan ownership model, which has been successful at the likes of Hearts and Motherwell.

In April this year, Mr McLennan launched an ambitious bid to raise £400,000 over 24 months to invest directly into the playing squad and reached an agreement with Golden Casket and Morton chief Crawford Rae for a 15 per cent shareholding and a seat on the board in return.

The fundraising campaign followed a decision by Ton's parent company to no longer underwrite annual losses incurred by the football club and a move to run it on a break-even basis.

The MCT initiative has secured £173k worth of pledges so far and people are still signing up, with officials confident of reaching the £400k target.

As a gesture of goodwill, Ton chiefs have agreed to hand over the full 15 per cent stake immediately and give a seat on the board to the supporters' group, on the proviso that the funding goal will be met between now and July 2021.

Mr McLenna said: "We've worked very hard on behalf of Morton supporters and the wider community to try and get the best deal possible for the pledgers, the community and Greenock Morton.

"In association with the Morton board and Golden Casket, we believe we have achieved something extremely positive and this is a fabulous opportunity."

The shares transfer will take place by the end of this week once the first monthly instalment is expected to be paid to the club from the supporters' group.

Over 400 fans who signed up to the scheme have been asked to convert their pledges into formal direct debits, which are due to start coming out of bank accounts from Thursday.

They will then become full members of MCT and would have a say on the future of the club through the group's 15 per cent shareholding - which would be the second largest - and its seat on the board.

Golden Casket has agreed to write-off £500k of the £2.5m debt pile owed to it by Morton for every £100k paid to the club by the supporters' group - which would eventually making the Greenock side debt-free.

An MCT spokesperson said: "We can't wait to start moving Morton forward and making this a success for all of us."