Bury owner Steve Dale calls for club’s league expulsion to be overturned

The owner of Bury FC has called on the Football League to reverse its decision to expel the club.

Steve Dale told Sky Sports News if his requests are ignored, he will demand an independent adjudicator is appointed to review the decision and will also ask other EFL clubs for their support.

Mr Dale said: “If the many requests to rescind remain unanswered we believe an independent adjudicator should be brought in.

“We also want a secret ballot of all EFL clubs to ask the question if they want fellow clubs Bolton and Bury FC to be taken out of the league – I don’t think they would want that.”

Bolton Wanderers are also on the brink of liquidation and have a deadline of 12 September to find a deal.

Dale said he has two parties who still want to buy Bury FC, which was expelled from the Football League on Tuesday after 125 years of membership.

Fans of the two-time FA Cup winners had placed their hopes in a takeover bid by C&N Sporting Risk.

But, with supporters gathered outside the Gigg Lane ground waiting for news, the data analytics company pulled out of a deal to buy the club from Dale, 90 minutes before the revised 5pm deadline.

The firm said it could not overcome the financial problems the club was facing.

England Women’s team manager Phil Neville, who was born and bred in Bury, said his mother Jill, who had worked at the club for 31 years, was “heartbroken” and that “the town has had its heart ripped out”.

He said: “I’m devastated. My mum worked there for 31 years and my dad worked there for 27 years. He’s got a stand named after him. My grandma, my grandad, my aunt, my uncle all worked at that football club.”

EFL executive chair Debbie Jevans said she was “absolutely devastated” at Bury’s plight, insisting “no one at the league wanted to see this happen”.

“I watched the scenes on TV last night and burst into tears,” she said.

But Ms Jevans insisted Mr Dale, and not the league, was to blame.

“We just had to look at ourselves and know we had done everything we could. Some will say we should’ve done more, but I look myself in the mirror and know we did everything we could.

“We just wanted him [Mr Dale] to show us he had sufficient funds to run the club and pay off the creditors. If we asked him once, we asked him a thousand times.”

With the Shakers now expelled from the EFL, they will not be able to play again until next season at the earliest – and then it will be at a non-league level.

Bury, who were formed in 1885, were unable to fulfil their first five league fixtures of the season and are the first team to be expelled from the Football League since Maidstone United back in 1992.

(c) Sky News 2019: Bury owner Steve Dale calls for club’s league expulsion to be overturned