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Bury FC

Tony Fallows

Tony Fallows

I Live Here
5
Aug 1, 2013
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I have been watching the goings-on at Bury FC this evening on the local TV. An owner who has no empathy with the club or its fans, fans locked out of the ground and protesting outside and some even chaining themselves to the gates (where have I heard that before?), a proud local club with a history stretching back into the 19th century being brought to the edge of possible destruction due to greed, ego and "business" whatever that is.

I am so sorry for all the fans who's culture and shared history the club represents and I am so thankful that we don't have to put up with such nonsense anymore!
 
Do you remember that FA Cup tie between them and the Vics? I remember not liking their manager one bit there but some years later at the Vics Andy Preece was very popular!
 
And now just like that, 134 years of a proud historic club, gone. No thanks to horrendous ownership over the last however many years. That last bit sounds familiar and who knows how many more clubs will end up like this in the near future...

Hopefully Bury and their fans will come back in some form, it can be done, it has been done elsewhere, it can be done at Bury. Perhaps it would be wrong to exclude Bolton from this because there's every chance that we could be talking about them in this exact scenario in the next few weeks. The Football League should hang their heads in shame that they have allowed this to happen. Fit and proper test my arse!
 
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Agreed the EFL should’ve applied their FPP (or whatever it’s called these days) rules sooner and with more vigour. However might this merely have resulted in Bury being in their present predicament a bit sooner? .... Maybe, maybe not.

A lot of flak heaped on the Premier League and its millions, along with the Nevilles/“Class of 92, but the bottom line is Bury has been badly run by its various owners for a number of years, cash injections from Premier League clubs/players would only have lined Dale’s pockets (in this instance) and in all probability only served to kick the Bury FC financial can a little further down the road.

As the dust settles the Bury FC Supporters Trust/Fan Group need to grasp the nettle and either reform or take control of the existing club, if indeed that’s possible. Where they might be placed next season, is of course another discussion entirely and there is no shortage of opinion on at what level that should be.
 
I’m sure more clubs will follow. Short-term success is the main priority and fans are as much to blame as the owners for demanding it. So many clubs are living beyond their means and yet no fan questions it as long as their team is winning.
The media falls for it too, how often do they ask how its all being paid for and how sustainable it all is when a team is doing well?
Without trying to go over old ground, we are one of the few sets of fans who made the tough decision to say we are not accepting it while the original club still existed. The fan-owned model must be the way forward for smaller clubs.
 
Can anyone confirm, do Capital Bridging Finance Solutions Ltd hold the mortgage on Gigg Lane, which will be a separate hurdle which any buyer whether that be individual, Trust or Fan Group would need to negotiate?
 
The key thing is for the stadium to be made an asset of community value. That'll stop them trying to sell it for housing etc.
 
Edge said:
The key thing is for the stadium to be made an asset of community value. That'll stop them trying to sell it for housing etc.
Click to expand...
The real mystery is who actually has a charge on Gigg Lane. There is the finance company who secured the mortgage on Day’s (?) behalf and then there is an Maltese consortium registered in some offshore tax haven. Good luck to ever manages to unravel that one and ensures any phoenix club has the opportunity to use Gigg Lane at some future point.
 
And there lies the root of Bury's demise. The way the club and debts have been restructured made it almost impossible for any buyer to understand the true position of the club/company. Its all very sad, but also very understandable
 
Isn't there a covenant on the ground that it has to be used for sporting pursuits? (Not that such things can't be circumvented of course)

The ever-reliable David Conn on the labyrinthine mess of Bury's finances - though he doesn't go so far as to draw what to us may seem the logical conclusions of the fans taking control of either a new Bury or the remnants of the old ...
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/aug/27/bury-historic-club-football-league-financial-ruins

I wonder if they'll get away with restarting in the NPL or whether they'll have to start lower down. Suppose it depends partly on whether they salvage the existing entity somehow or let it be liquidated and start afresh.
 
Well if they can't rescue Gig lane from the financial mire, a lot will depend on where they play (Groundshare with FC United?), which in turn may mean they go all the way down to say one of the Unibond leagues or in with 1874.

If they try and rescue Gig Lane, is that something that could happen with a few months? Not really likely is it? I would say they are destined to start again, if at all.
 
It’s plausible, but unlikely, that they might even be placed in Division 1 of the NWCFL?
 
Bury council has said that Gigg Lane will be listed as a community asset .and they will not let houses or anything else to be built on it, Its what Cheshire West Council should have done with the Victoria Stadium I wrote to the CWAC at the time .and never even received a reply.Lets hope Bury council do the right thing for the community
 
All hypothetical at the moment though anyway, however wasn’t the Premier Division reduced down to 20 clubs as part of the FA grand restructuring plans? If the league were to accommodate them it’s numbers would need to be increased to 21 or another club would need to be relegated/moved to keep the Division at its intended maximum number.

At the end of the day my money is on them finding a place in the NPL.
 
That's all very laudable, but you can see how that can then get caught up in a legal dispute with the gates locked and no one able to get in there. Within a year or so it would just become a rusting hulk and probably vandalised to boot. As it falls into disrepair the locals will become increasingly disillusioned with it and the pressure grows to let redevelopment happen

It needs the Council or another football club to buy the facility and return it to use asap
 
I remember trying to get in touch with CWAC about a non-footballing matter. It seemed easier to get in touch with the dead than CWAC as they never returned any phone calls, e-mails or letters.
 
a report on Sky notes that the fella who was allowed to buy Bury FC for £1 had previously been involved with 20 (Twenty) failed companies yet still passed the EFL "Fit and Proper Persons Test " Debbie Jevons (ex tennis player) and now the chairperson of the EFL says "Lessons have been Learnt" the standard reply when you have made a Horlicks of something.
 
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