Bury FC.

[Innovindil]

Proper grim. Never nice seeing a football club go under. Got to feel for their fans. 

[trabuch]

37 minutes ago, adam said:

Just read that 43 of the 51 business their owner has ran have ended up being liquidated. It's a disgrace he was allowed to take Bury on. 

Seems like there is a pattern emerging. I bet he drives better car than any one of us. 

 

Sorry about this, but it feels apt and I'm angry - and mods feel free to delete:

 

 

[Tuna]

Absolutely devastating news for all Bury fans and the football community as a whole. A situation that should never have happened and must never be allowed to happen again. Far too many crisis club situations in recent years, Bury, Bolton, Coventry, Portsmouth, Blackpool, Leyton Orient etc.

 

You'd like to think that Bury's demise will drive reform within the EFL regarding ownership, but I doubt it, sadly. They seem an organization that are beyond reproach.

As for Burys's fans, I hope they can get a new phoenix club off the ground ready for next season and re-join the pyramid, most likely in the Northern Premier League Division One - it's a long way back but it's been done before.

 

 

[Mike the Metal Ed]

23 minutes ago, Bilo said:

Utter ineptitude all round. 

 

Dale is a serial business wrecker, the EFL were staggeringly inept in allowing him to take charge of the club and the disparity in TV money from Sky simply hammers more nails into the coffin. 

 

The result is that a 134-year-old club is now dead with debatable prospects for a phoenix club given the sheer volume of clubs in Greater Manchester and Dale clinging on to Gigg Lane for dear life.

Off the top of my head the logical step is to groundshare with Ramsbottom United until Gigg Lane is secured or an alternative venue found. 

 

Maybe FC United will be willing to reciprocate the groundshare they had with Bury for nine years, but that would depend on if FCUM actually "owe" Bury anything from back then, I suppose.

 

Edit: Although I reckon Bury's core fanbase could probably fill Ramsbottom's ground twice over so they might already be too big to play there even in the NLP.

Edited 27 August 2019 by Mike the Metal Ed

[UniFox21]

I may be being naive, but being removed from the league hasn't ended the club yet surely? 

If a buyer came in could the club still be saved?

[Bilo]

1 minute ago, UniFox21 said:

I may be being naive, but being removed from the league hasn't ended the club yet surely? 

If a buyer came in could the club still be saved?

There'll be no income for a year, so I doubt it.

[UniFox21]

“The EFL has to place the integrity of our competitions at the heart of every decision we make, and we simply cannot allow this unacceptable situation to continue or countenance the prospect of postponing further fixtures."

 

A quote from that statement. Quite frankly this is atrocious.

The "integrity" of their league was compromise the minute they allowed owners, like Dale, purchase a club and inevitably run it into the ground. The "integrity" of their league was lost the minute it became obvious their fit and proper persons test is a pile of shit. 

Quite frankly the integrity of the EFL is worth nothing.  They've allowed a club to go under. Yes, a majority amount of blame is at Dale's door. But the EFL needs to seriously look at itself, as a significant portion of blame comes down to them. 

 

 

[Shev]

The whole system is buggered. The English pyramid system was one of the delights of sport, but it is rotten from head to foot now. Even clubs that try and live within their means (such as my Wycombe) have a real struggle on their hands. There is no one person or institution to blame - it has all happened over time, between the PL, the EFL, the likes of Chelsea and Man City causing wages to go up higher, and the lure of the PL causing Championship teams to lose their minds at the roulette table.

 

Either way, the system is broken. Leicester winning the league feels like the last true romance/magic the PL will ever see, if nothing changes. And at a lower league level, it is increasingly a frantic thrashing around for survival. Bury won't be the last...

[Dan LCFC]

The more I listen to Steve Dale the more I think there's something a lot more sinister at work here. There's being ignorant and not really giving a shit, but that interview from him earlier today showed absolutely zero remorse and a couple of comments that I took as digs at football fans in general - the culture of football fans. This is a man who strikes me as somebody who actually hates football and wants to get his own back at it and this is his way. I can't shake that feeling.

 

Heads need to roll at the EFL. Their bleak track record has just taken its worst turn yet. If this doesn't wake them up that something needs to be done about who gains control of football clubs, then I honestly don't know what will.

 

How nothing was done about this sooner is astounding. Did nobody smell a rat when Bury made some of those signings? The owners before Dale are just as culpible.

[Dan LCFC]

Oh, and Sky Sports have somehow managed to get even lower than their pathetic behaviour about us in the summer as well. So detatched from reality it's embarrassing.

[CosbehFox]

5 hours ago, Dan LCFC said:

The more I listen to Steve Dale the more I think there's something a lot more sinister at work here. There's being ignorant and not really giving a shit, but that interview from him earlier today showed absolutely zero remorse and a couple of comments that I took as digs at football fans in general - the culture of football fans. This is a man who strikes me as somebody who actually hates football and wants to get his own back at it and this is his way. I can't shake that feeling.

 

Heads need to roll at the EFL. Their bleak track record has just taken its worst turn yet. If this doesn't wake them up that something needs to be done about who gains control of football clubs, then I honestly don't know what will.

 

How nothing was done about this sooner is astounding. Did nobody smell a rat when Bury made some of those signings? The owners before Dale are just as culpible.

The bloke is an asset stripper for certain. He’s after the land from the ground but he’s underestimated the difficulties surrounding that. 

 

For me, the EFL has a huge blame on their door. Firstly approved the sale of the club to a bloke who made a fortune off dodgy property deals who overspends and then approve the sale of the club to a known asset stripper. The reason the sale didn’t go through however wasn’t because of Dale, it was because the previous owner Day had set up sham deal with a ghost company regards renting the car park etc and the prospective owners weren’t willing to stump the millions to pay that debt off. 

 

Sadly the EFL is just a collection of clubs who don’t want stronger governance as a number of existing owners would get caught out. Equally same criticism can be laid at the PL. The FA are the only footballing body who have a governmental link but they have passed on the organisations of the league’s 

 

Its not nice to say but in certain ways, the slow rebuild of Bury in a new ‘guise’ will give them stronger foundations for the future. The battle for them is the ground however. 

 

 

Edited 28 August 2019 by Cardiff_Fox

[woddyuk]

It's it that long ago we were hours from ceasing existence ourselves. The likes of Lineker and Heskey putting their hands in their pockets to save us. We were lucky, no ten point deduction for administration and then Mandaric saving us before passing the baton on to King Power. How fortunate are we? 

Yet some want to moan about a pink hat? 

 

P*ss poor management, bad luck, the economy, as well as rogue owners have led to the loss of Woolworths, BHS, Dixons, Comet, Bruccianis, etc from the High St. The same issues have left Bury chucked out of the league, & Bolton perhaps 14 days behind them. Both clubs could also go to the wall completely. And who next? 

Is it the start of the pyramid collapsing? 

Blackpool, Blackburn, Coventry, Notts County, Ipswich, and several others just a step away from becoming Bolton or Bury themselves. Fan riviaries aside its a sad time for fans of football. 

[SemperEadem]

3 minutes ago, woddyuk said:

It's it that long ago we were hours from ceasing existence ourselves. The likes of Lineker and Heskey putting their hands in their pockets to save us. We were lucky, no ten point deduction for administration and then Mandaric saving us before passing the baton on to King Power. How fortunate are we? 

Yet some want to moan about a pink hat? 

 

P*ss poor management, bad luck, the economy, as well as rogue owners have led to the loss of Woolworths, BHS, Dixons, Comet, Bruccianis, etc from the High St. The same issues have left Bury chucked out of the league, & Bolton perhaps 14 days behind them. Both clubs could also go to the wall completely. And who next? 

Is it the start of the pyramid collapsing? 

Blackpool, Blackburn, Coventry, Notts County, Ipswich, and several others just a step away from becoming Bolton or Bury themselves. Fan riviaries aside its a sad time for fans of football. 

Bore off even trying to bring in the pink hats on this.

[Steven]

14 hours ago, Fox92 said:

Awful. But I expect no less from Sky or News Corporation or anything owned by Murdoch. Vile. 

No longer part of the Murdoch stable. Now owned by Comcast.

[Daggers]

5 hours ago, Dan LCFC said:

The more I listen to Steve Dale the more I think there's something a lot more sinister at work here. There's being ignorant and not really giving a shit, but that interview from him earlier today showed absolutely zero remorse and a couple of comments that I took as digs at football fans in general - the culture of football fans. This is a man who strikes me as somebody who actually hates football and wants to get his own back at it and this is his way. I can't shake that feeling.

 

Heads need to roll at the EFL. Their bleak track record has just taken its worst turn yet. If this doesn't wake them up that something needs to be done about who gains control of football clubs, then I honestly don't know what will.

 

How nothing was done about this sooner is astounding. Did nobody smell a rat when Bury made some of those signings? The owners before Dale are just as culpible.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/aug/27/bury-historic-club-football-league-financial-ruins

[RowlattsFox]

I fear this will be the beginning of a few clubs going over the next few years as clubs struggle to keep up with money in the game. Excessive wage demands filter down the leagues where some clubs can afford it and others can't, and some clubs take risks they cannot maintain. The depth of football in this country is what makes English football special and we need to somehow protect the futures of these clubs.

 

I don't know what EFL need to do about ensuring owners are "fit and proper" (whatever that means) but its clear that what they are doing is wrong.

 

Its not the PL clubs or players fault but its terrible that a players wages could probably enough to keep clubs like Bury alive. It would be a nice gesture if some sort of donation can be made to the non-playing staff who haven't been paid and now lost their jobs.

 

Its heartbreaking to lose Bury, but for a club like Bolton to also be close to collapse shows that it can happen to anyone.

 

 

[The Syrup]

10 hours ago, adam said:

Just read that 43 of the 51 business their owner has ran have ended up being liquidated. It's a disgrace he was allowed to take Bury on. 

Just doing a basic free search of Companies House records should have got alarm bells ringing...

 

Mr Steven Derek Dale, born Feb 1956, 4 links below as he's had 4 different registered addresses over the years.

https://companycheck.co.uk/director/918430351/MR-STEVEN-DEREK-DALE/summary

https://companycheck.co.uk/director/917635574/MR-STEVEN-DEREK-DALE/summary

https://companycheck.co.uk/director/906117773/MR-STEVEN-DEREK-DALE/summary

https://companycheck.co.uk/director/915831591/MR-STEVEN-DEREK-DALE/summary

 

[isaidno]

Shocking that Mr Dale was allowed anywhere near the club with his business history. 

[Tommo220]

The "fit and Proper" test has never been Fit nor Proper.  

 

Just look at the long list of clubs that have owners that should never have passed any kind of scrutiny and the amount of dodgy deals that have gone on right under their noses that - i mean take Portsmouth for instance, how they managed to stay in business with some of their past owners is beyond me!

 

as has been said a million times, it's the fans i feel for most.  hopefully a fan lead consortium can buy them out of administration and start building back up, although its a long way back for them now.

[Rusko187]

3 minutes ago, Tommo220 said:

The "fit and Proper" test has never been Fit nor Proper.  

 

Just look at the long list of clubs that have owners that should never have passed any kind of scrutiny and the amount of dodgy deals that have gone on right under their noses that - i mean take Portsmouth for instance, how they managed to stay in business with some of their past owners is beyond me!

 

as has been said a million times, it's the fans i feel for most.  hopefully a fan lead consortium can buy them out of administration and start building back up, although its a long way back for them now.

I'm sure I read they didn't conduct a "fit and proper test" or thoroughly complete one due to the impending financial disaster already.

EFL have blood on their hands with this, given they've failed to do their checks I'm amazed they took the stance of throwing Bury out of the leagues... truly felt the EFLs failings would have been considered, but hey... who cares about a club with 134 years of history!

[Out Foxed]

they signed off on the ****. fans of the club didn't. they should be punishing themselves.

 

absolute scum. 

[DerbyshireFox]

Dale calling on the EFL to rescind the expulsion as he has two buyers. If ignored he wants to ballot all EFL clubs to see if they want Bolton and Bury exiled as he doesn’t think they all would. He should have done the deal sooner rather than waiting till the last minute. Prolonging the agony for the supporters 

[Manwell Pablo]

There is perhaps a need to look at the EFL's inner workings but can't help but think it's being scapegoated a bit here, Dale ran the club into the ground no one else. And this is not exclusive to England, lower league teams struggle in most western European countries struggle and flirt with going out of business frequently either by through mismanagement or living beyond their means in the name of gaining promotion. It's impossible to sense check the intentions of every owner with the fir and proper test.

 

 

 

[David Hankey]

Dale is unfit to be the owner of a professional football Club and how he ever passed the League's rules is a mystery. As for Bury FC they have been on the decline for years and unfortunately having a reprehensible owner has only exacerbated the situation. What is about these north-western based Club, Blackpool, Accrington Stanley, Bury & Bolton Wanderers. History means absolute diddly squat!!

[CosbehFox]

21 minutes ago, Manwell Pablo said:

There is perhaps a need to look at the EFL's inner workings but can't help but think it's being scapegoated a bit here, Dale ran the club into the ground no one else. And this is not exclusive to England, lower league teams struggle in most western European countries struggle and flirt with going out of business frequently either by through mismanagement or living beyond their means in the name of gaining promotion. It's impossible to sense check the intentions of every owner with the fir and proper test.

 

 

 

Goes back further than that with Bury. 

 

Stewart Day their previous owner gained them the debt by overspending on players etc. His business went pop - works like a timeshare but instead for apartment blocks built in the UK (a lot of them were using Grenfell type insulation) and a few of his parting acts was to sell things like the car park - which now has a huge liability debt hence why the proposed deal broke down.  

 

You'd think that there could be legislation which stops football clubs/their owners selling off the real assets. 

 

Edited 28 August 2019 by Cardiff_Fox