Bolton Wanderers were dramati-
cally rescued from the brink of col-
lapse last night after a bittersweet
24 hours for the crisis-hit English
Football League.
The Football Ventures consor-
tium confirmed it had finally com-
pleted the “most complicated”
purchase just two days after the ad-
ministrator warned the 145-year-
old club appeared doomed.
However, there were increas-
ingly bitter recriminations yester-
day over the EFL’s decision to expel
League One neighbours Bury as it
emerged a £7 million rescue pack-
age was tabled. The Daily Telegraph
understands a group of figures con-
nected with Bury are now consider-
ing a High Court class action if the
EFL ignores its pleas for appeal.
For Bolton, though, the League
One season can continue. Debbie
Jevans, the EFL executive chair-
man, confirmed the club were no
longer in administration and a fort-
night warning of expulsion “has
been cancelled”.
“These past few months have
been challenging and, at times,
fraught and I would like to thank all
parties for their efforts in achieving
the desired outcome,” she said.
Ken Anderson, the businessman
who took the club into administra-
tion, was believed to have wanted
the deal to include indemnity from
any possible civil action, but joint
administrator Paul Appleton
confirmed the deal had been res-
cued. “At times, some of the hurdles
appeared insurmountable and the
frustration felt has been immense,”
he said.
The rescue should eventually
safeguard 150 jobs. Appleton
launched a blistering attack on
Anderson for using “his position as
a secured creditor to hamper and
frustrate any deal that did not ben-
efit him or suit his purposes.”
The EFL pulled the plug on BuryBy Tom Morgan
and Ben RumsbyConsortium finally seals
Wanderers takeover
Expelled club claiming
late £7m bid was valid
on Tuesday night to make them the
first club to be expelled since Maid-
stone United in 1992. Jevans yester-
day ruled out a reprieve, despite SJ
Global International’s claims that it
had transferred funds to buy the
club by 9am yesterday. Jill Neville,
the club secretary, reportedly took
a call from the EFL late on Tuesday
night telling her that £7 million res-
cue funds had been rescinded.
Ivan Lewis, the local MP, is
among a host of interested parties
who have now signed a letter urg-
ing the EFL to reconsider in the
wake of the offer. “The EFL has
proof of funds from a credible
global organisation which has
agreed a purchase with Steve Dale,”
Lewis said.
Sports lawyer Chris Farnell said
SJ Global, with which he works,
had agreed a rescue package with
Dale, and was trying to ascertain
from the EFL the best way to trans-
fer funds to complete the takeover.
The offer to buy Bury came in late
on Monday and the EFL was imme-
diately contacted by Farnell, who, in
discussions with them, he says,
made it clear it appeared to meet all
financial criteria. However, Jevans
said earlier: “There’s no appeal pro-
cess. It is within people’s rights to
write to us. We await any corre-
spondence, should it arrive.”
Jevans also refused to rule out
whether the Serious Fraud Office
could be called in to investigate thehandling of the club which led to
their collapse. Concerns, she said,
had been raised by C&N Sporting
Risk, another of the failed bidders.
Damian Collins, chairman of the
Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
Committee, will now lead MPs in
reviewing the crisis. “Once again,
the football authorities, and the
EFL in particular, seem powerless
to stop bad owners running great
clubs into the ground,” he told The
Daily Telegraph.
Jevans said she was “devastated,sad, any number of adjectives”
about Bury’s plight, and the league
had done all it could to save them.
The blame was laid entirely at the
door of Bury’s owner. “It was his
[Dale’s] choice not to sell,” she said.
Vysyble, the data firm which
claims it warned the EFL of a poten-
tial crisis two years ago, said Bury’s
expulsion could be just the start.
“What we’ve experienced with
Bury and with Bolton, we expect to
happen again,” said John Purcell,
the co-founder of Vysyble.”Highs and lows:
While Bolton
Wanderers fans
could celebrate
survival outside
the club stadium
yesterday (left),
Bury fans turned
up to Gigg Lane
to mourn their
team’s expulsionPABolton rescued as Bury demand appeal
The thought that I will never put the shirt on again is soul-destroying
E
ven right up to the last
minute, I did not think it was
going to happen. I could not
believe that they were going to let
a club with Bury’s history die like
that. Not with the money there is
in the game.
On Tuesday, like the fans, I was
waiting for news. At first, it seemed
as though there was going to be a
takeover; you are thinking, maybeSTEPHEN
DAWS ON
BURY PLAYER
there’s new hope, new money
coming in. When that bid
disappeared, the rumour was there
were three others on table.
“You thought surely the English
Football League would extend the
deadline – 8pm, 9pm, 10pm came
and went, and you do not know
what is happening.
Then, when the news broke at
11pm, I just sat there in disbelief. I
woke up again at 5am and headed
downstairs and just sat there,
numb. I have not been able to eat
since it happened. The thought
that I will never put the shirt on
again is soul-destroying.
If I am honest, I should have
seen it coming. This has not beengoing on for a couple of weeks. It
has been a slow torture, a never-
ending seven or eight months of
hell, of CVA agreements and loan
facilities and the chairman telling
us to our faces he would sort it.
Why did it take so long for the
EFL to get proof of funds off a man
who you could tell from the get-go
had not got any? I have not been
paid for 18 weeks. By Tuesday,there were only four of us players
left at the club, and we were told
because of sales of other squad
members there would be money to
pay us what we were owed. Now I
know it will not happen.
I am unemployed. The first thing
I did was put my house on the
market. I just do not know where
the money will come from to pay
the mortgage. I got a text from the
Professional Footballers’
Association telling me there is
nothing standing in my way now
and I can find another club. I need
to get one; a man has to provide for
his family.
Here is hoping I find another
club, but for the generations offamilies who have loved Bury over
the years, it has gone, all gone. I
went to the training ground to say
goodbye to everyone and, honestly,
it breaks your heart. The kit man
who has been there for years, who
loves the club, who has given his
soul to it, just kicked in the teeth.
That is what hits you. Seeing all
the people turning up on Tuesday
to clean the ground, the fans from
many other clubs coming to help,
the love, the optimism, the hope:
that will live long in the memory.
I believe there is the passion to
find a way to rebirth. But this can
never be allowed to happen again.
Football clubs are too important:
this must be the last time.‘The authorities
seem powerless to
stop bad owners
running great clubs
into the ground’
I am unemployed.
The first thing I did
was put my house
on the market
Sport Football
6 *** Thursday 29 August 2019 The Daily Telegraph
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