MORTON fans will become the new owners of the club in an historic takeover from the Rae family.

The deal was announced in the last few minutes by supporter investment group Morton Club Together and will see the reins handed over for a nominal fee at the end of the coming season.

It has also been revealed that the Rae family turned down a recent takeover approach by a mystery third party who had been holding talks with the club.

The unnamed bidder is understood to have had no prior connection with the club or Inverclyde area.

Instead, an agreement has been reached between Ton parent firm Golden Casket - led by current Cappielow chairman Crawford Rae - and MCT which will see the supporters' group take a majority 90 per cent shareholding next summer.

The club's remaining debt will be completely written off, meaning the new owners will start with a clean slate.

As part of the deal, Golden Casket will be retaining ownership of Cappielow and the Sinclair Street car park.

The statement announcing the takeover said the ground will be rented out to Morton 'at a nominal fee'.

The news of the MCT takeover comes just over a year after the fans' group was founded by local man Graham McLennan.

Since then it has signed up over 400 members who have poured over £100,000 of investment into the club so far.

Mr McLennan said: "We have achieved so much and have an exciting future ahead of us.

“We would like to thank every single one of our members who has supported us so far.

“Our goal has been clear from the outset – we want to move Morton forward.

“We want a better team on the pitch, and we want a better match day experience for everyone attending Cappielow.

“We want to listen to the fans and to communicate effectively with all fans, stakeholders, and partners.

“We are all Morton supporters - we all want what is best for the club and now is our chance to do that through community ownership."

The Rae family have been involved in the club for over 30 years, firstly when the late Douglas Rae OBE became a director in 1988.

He subsequently stepped in to save the club from administration in 2001 and was in charge for 17-years as chairman before his passing in 2018.

The reins were then passed on to his son.

In recent months behind-the-scenes negotiations had been ongoing between a third party and Ton's current owners, with involvement from MCT, about a purchase of the football club.

The statement issued by MCT said that despite the terms of that deal being 'much more financially beneficial to Golden Casket and the Rae family, an offer from the third party was rejected in favour of facilitating community ownership through MCT'.

The agreement is conditional on both parties agreeing in March that MCT are in a financial position to run the club in a viable manner.

Mr Rae said: “The Rae family’s final act of devotion to the club is to hand it over to the fans, marking their last involvement in the financial responsibility and stewardship at Greenock Morton FC.”

Over the next nine months, MCT will be working closely with the existing Ton board and key club personnel to fully understand the business and operations of the club.

Bosses at MCT say they hope news of the takeover will persuade more supporters to join up and contribute.

Mr McLennan said: “We encourage Morton fans from everywhere to join us on this journey, and we hope this announcement will encourage many more to come on board."