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Daily Mail, Thursday, August 29, 2019
Football League Crisis& BROKEN HEARTS
rubble of a once great club now deceased
I CAN’T tell you how convinced
we all were that the start to
our season was going to be
around the corner and the
problems which have meant
us missing our opening five
games would be resolved.
We’ve been working hard on
team shape in training. We
were thoroughly drilled for
Doncaster on Saturday and
really excited to be getting
under way. I was sitting in
front of the TV on Tuesday
night, thinking, ‘I’ll be training
tomorrow,’ when I heard the
news that my team were
being expelled from the
Football League.
I guess we should have known.
The owner Steve Dale has
made so many promises and
none of them have
materialised. When the dust
settles on all this, I hope there
will be an EFL investigation
into how someone like that
comes to hold power over a
proud local club like Bury,
which I’ve got to know well
over three years. Dale should
be explaining what has goneon. You don’t go and hide, like
he has. But getting answers
from him will be like looking
for a needle in a haystack. It
always has been.
There are financial
consequences for us all now,
of course.
I’m not bringing income into
our house because I’ve not
been paid for seven months.
I’m out of work, I suppose. It
is even worse for other lads
starting out.
One of the worst parts of all
this has been seeing the
pressure and anxiety they’ve
been facing when turning up
to train. But the most
devastating bit is the loss of a
club which means so much to
the community — and that’s
why I think the EFL must, even
now, do the utmost to see ifthe £7million offer from a new
consortium can save the day.
It seems to have become a
stand-off between the
League and Dale. The club
have been stuck in the middle.
That’s wrong.
I grew up watching Liverpool.
I go to the games there with
my two sons, in the same way
that hundreds of people from
this town do at Gigg Lane. To
take that away is disgusting
and unthinkable. This
town needs and deserves
better, and the EFL has a
responsibility to make sure
that happens.
When I woke up this morning,
I felt like I’d lost something.
I’m simply devastated. That’s
exactly how the fans feel.
Neil Danns was talking to
Ian Herbert.I HAVEN’T BEEN PAID
FOR SEVEN MONTHS
INSIGHT
NEIL DANNS
BURY CAPTAINEFL clubs fear a dip in TV deals
EFL CLUBS were left
worrying for their financial
futures yesterday as the
crises at Bury and Bolton
began to sink in.
The most pessimistic clubs
are fearing a potential ‘20
or 30 per cent’ reduction in
the overall pot for lower-
league teams in the years to
come amid uncertainty over
future TV deals.
The majority of clubs in the
EFL rely heavily
on broadcast
packages,which make up around
two-thirds of some
clubs’ turnovers.
But the Premier League’s
domestic TV rights deal with
BT Sport and Sky fell by
seven per cent when it was
renegotiated last year.
As a result, solidaritypayments — money paid by
the Premier League from
their TV deal to the lower
league clubs — have fallen.
Championship clubs now
pocket £4.5million a year,
with League One sides
earning £675,000 and those
in League Two £450,000.
‘I can see where owners are
coming from,’ said football
finance expert Rob Wilson.
‘All clubs are faced with the
dilemma of falling income.’Moving
scenes: a fan
weeps at
Gigg Lane
(far left)
where a skip
is in place
(above). Fans
make their
feelings for
owner Steve
Dale clear
(left) and
share their
memories on
the main
gates (right)
GETTY IMAGES/BPIEXCLUSIVE
By JACK GAUGHANSquad set for crisis
talks with the PFA
threat of expulsion from the Football
League. Danns, who urged the EFL
to re-consider an 11th-hour bid for
the club by Brazil-based
investment consortium SJ Global,
said legal action was a possibility.
‘It’s something that could be an
option,’ said Danns. ‘We are
supposed to be protected by the
EFL. If anything, there has been
negligence there. From the second
month after Steve Dale bought the
club, we’ve not been paid.’
Bury’s players are expected to
meet Professional Footballers’
Association officials to decide what
their next steps could be.
Employment law specialists also
said last night that players could
sue over breach of contract and
failure to consult over redundancy.
But since Bury’s expulsion is now
expected to bring liquidation, there
may be little hope of a pay-out.
Bury, formed 134 years ago, are the
first club since Maidstone in 1992 to
be expelled from the league, after
having failed to meet a deadline to
complete a sale or show the means
to pay off creditors and fulfil their
fixtures for the rest of the season.
SJ Global is also ready to consider
legal action if denied the chance tomove ahead with the purchase of
the club. The town’s MPs, James
Frith and Ivan Lewis, both described
the potential buyer yesterday as a
‘credible global organisation’.
Dale said that if his own requests to
overturn the EFL decision are
ignored, he would demand an
independent adjudicator is
appointed to review it. ‘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,’ Dale said.
‘I don’t think they would want that.’
But Debbie Jevans, the interim EFL
chair, insisted there was no appeal
process against the decision. ‘It is
within people’s rights to write to
us,’ she said. ‘But at what point do
you say “enough”? We have
postponed five matches. At what
point do you stop? We have a duty
to other clubs.’
As well as Bury’s unpaid players,
office workers, kit staff, lottery ticket
sellers and others at the club could
face a battle to recoup more than
25 per cent of what they are owed.
Following Bolton’s takeover late
yesterday, the EFL announced that
the club had been lifted out of
administration and were no longer
subject of a withdrawal notice.From Back PageDevastated: Neil Danns at
Gigg Lane yesterday