Bury are gone. | Page 6 | Vital Football

Bury are gone.

I actually would be pleased to see Bury revive and begin the slow process of regaining their Football League status. I have made a number of trips there to watch the Imps over the years and always enjoyed the area's pubs, chippies etc.

Good luck to the consortium.
 
The phoenix club AFC Bury have won the North West Counties Division 1 North title, so I assume will be promoted to the NWCL Prem Div next season
 
Article in this weeks NLP suggests that consultations are ongoing between the two supporters groups which will lead to a vote of both groups, (ie the one with a team, and the one with a stadium) with hopes of a positive outcome, leading to the phoenix team playing at Gigg Lane from the 23/24 season
 
Macclesfield have reached the same level as Lincoln Utd and Stamford and will play in the Northern Premier League West Division.

Bury will be one step lower in the North West Counties League Premier Division.
 
stokeimp said:
Article in this weeks NLP suggests that consultations are ongoing between the two supporters groups which will lead to a vote of both groups, (ie the one with a team, and the one with a stadium) with hopes of a positive outcome, leading to the phoenix team playing at Gigg Lane from the 23/24 season
Click to expand...

If it is the pheonix team it will be the original Bury who play at Gigg Lane next season.

The original Bury weren't liquidated so if things are sorted out it is perfectly feasible for them to begin the long process back, starting at the bottom.

They won't be able to jump on the back of Bury AFC, they are a total seperate identity formed by a group of Bury FC fans after Bury FC had been suspended from the EFL.

So in my mind its;
Either abandon the Bury AFC project and everyone goes back to putting all their efforts into the original Bury FC and starting all over again...or...those who are now running Bury AFC continue to do as a seperate club from Bury FC.
They are not the same club.
 
clanfordimp said:
If it is the pheonix team it will be the original Bury who play at Gigg Lane next season.

The original Bury weren't liquidated so if things are sorted out it is perfectly feasible for them to begin the long process back, starting at the bottom.

They won't be able to jump on the back of Bury AFC, they are a total seperate identity formed by a group of Bury FC fans after Bury FC had been suspended from the EFL.

So in my mind its;
Either abandon the Bury AFC project and everyone goes back to putting all their efforts into the original Bury FC and starting all over again...or...those who are now running Bury AFC continue to do as a seperate club from Bury FC.
They are not the same club.
Click to expand...

Surely if the 2 clubs agree to merge they can still lay claim to the original clubs history and carry on the work started by the new club. Mergers happen regularly in football D&R and however many were merged before that merger. The original R&D before they went belly up. The Bury side that were kicked out were themselves a merger. There are many instances of clubs merging,
 
Impartiality said:
Surely if the 2 clubs agree to merge they can still lay claim to the original clubs history and carry on the work started by the new club. Mergers happen regularly in football D&R and however many were merged before that merger. The original R&D before they went belly up. The Bury side that were kicked out were themselves a merger. There are many instances of clubs merging,
Click to expand...

Yeah I suppose they could merge thinking about it.

I wonder how the authorities decide which league they go in though?
 
clanfordimp said:
Yeah I suppose they could merge thinking about it.

I wonder how the authorities decide which league they go in though?
Click to expand...

As Impalex and I have alluded to above, they will be playing this season in the NWCL Prem Div, so I suppose there are three possibilities for 23/4: if they win promotion this season they will be promoted to the Northern Prem West at Step 4, if they get relegated it will be back to the NWCL Div 1 at Step 6, or they stay put at step 5. Effectively, starting from now, they will need 5 promotions to get back into the EFL
 
Great town , great supporters and a lovely ground.

Heres to football back at Gigg Lane as soon as possible.
 
cheshireimp said:
Great town , great supporters and a lovely ground.

Heres to football back at Gigg Lane as soon as possible.
Click to expand...

Always thought that until the rucus three seasons ago at their place- attacking women and children as they left the ground. Certainly shed no tears on their demise and took it rather smugly as karma.
 
An interesting conversation today with a friend who has the ear of the Man City hierarchy*.

Apparently (as an act of altruism for a fellow club in the area of greater Manchester) Man City offered the EFL to buy out Dale, to whit pay off all existing Bury debts, set the account to zero and return the club to the community. Allegedly the EFL turned the offer down on the basis that Man. City would have a conflict of interest going forward and may be in a position of seeking advantage e.g. looking to utilise Bury as a feeder club or favouritism when wanting to sign one of their players.

In turn Man. City allegedly offered to enter into any assurances or legal agreements that would not be the case and under no circumstances would have any holding whatsoever in the club once Bury had been retrieved and the debts cleared. Again, the EFL re-iterated that would not be acceptable.

*No, I won't identify my source; all I can say is that without doubt he really does have the ear of the Man City hierarchy (e.g. correctly informed me that Kane would not be signed and Haaland would be, Sterling was going to Chelsea, Jesus to Arsenal etc. etc. etc.) and there is no agenda to what he said which only came up in general conversation whilst we enjoyed a day at the Lancs/Yorks cricket today. I have no evidence to support this anecdotal information and people can attach as little or much credence to this information as they see fit.

If true, whether Man. City or the EFL are in the right is a matter of personal opinion.
 
Last edited:
Report in today's NLP that the vote for a merger of the two Bury groups went against. The Shakers Society, which set up AFC Bury, voted 94% in favour, and the Bury FC Supporters Society (who own the ground) voted 62.9% in favour, but that fell short of the 66.6% required to pass (apparently 286 voted against). Don't know where that leaves things for the Gigg Lane group (AFC will just carry on as normal), particularly since the report states that the council had pledged £450,000 funding to a unified club.

Personal politics getting in the way? Dunno, but from outside appears to be a strange decision by a minority of supporters
 
stokeimp said:
Report in today's NLP that the vote for a merger of the two Bury groups went against. The Shakers Society, which set up AFC Bury, voted 94% in favour, and the Bury FC Supporters Society (who own the ground) voted 62.9% in favour, but that fell short of the 66.6% required to pass (apparently 286 voted against). Don't know where that leaves things for the Gigg Lane group (AFC will just carry on as normal), particularly since the report states that the council had pledged £450,000 funding to a unified club.

Personal politics getting in the way? Dunno, but from outside appears to be a strange decision by a minority of supporters
Click to expand...
At face value at least, that does sound like a reasonable majority being held hostage by quite a small minority. I wonder how the cut-off point is decided i.e., the two thirds required opposed to simply being greater than 50%.
 
Apparently there is to be another vote in May, as reported in this week’s NLP

It seems that the group who own the stadium have had an application for a team to join the National League System rejected, so the only way senior men’s football can be played at Gigg Lane next season would be to support the merger.

Additionally, contingent upon the merger is £1.3m of funding, potentially rising to £2m (can’t remember who this is from, but I think the local authority is involved). Also, the government grant funding to purchase Gigg Lane could be clawed back, because the funding conditions could not be met if there is no amalgamation.

For info, Bury AFC, who were promoted from Step 6 last season sit in 4th place in the Step 5 NW Counties League Prem Division, 11 points behind the team at the top, but have six games in hand. So there is a distinct possibility that they could be playing at Step 4 in the Northern Prem next season (ie still 4 levels below the EFL)

Really don’t know what the motive of anyone would be to reject the merger
 
You must log in or register to reply here.