bury being thrown out of the football league

The only thing that I’ll say is that it’s fucking disgusting that the exact group that allowed this to happen, the EFL, is the group that is expelling them from the EFL.

2 Likes

Really sorry - you must be absolutely gutted. The whole thing is shit. The ownership and governance models aren’t fit for purpose.

This may have been discussed elsewhere (and may also be an ill-informed cliché), but doesn’t ‘the German model’ stop things like this happening?

1 Like

Yeah. I think there might be a few exceptions but no individual can own more than 49% of a German club

1 Like

as mentioned in the football thread… I was born in a semi-detached in Bury and the first football game I ever went to was a midweek League Cup match at Gigg Lane with my dad - I was 5.

I do not understand how a club & a community can be punished like this because of crooks (Dale & his brother-in-law) & incompetents (EFL). Total shit show

3 Likes

Exactly

How hard would it be to have reserve funds for this eventuality? Not hard at all

Might even make them pull their socks up as regard ‘fit owner’ oversight if they though it might impact their own coffers down the line

Only issue with this is that if the crooks bought out clubs knowing that there was a ‘safety net’ then they would be more likely to take financial risks and run up greater debt. The answer is really to have proper and more thorough due diligence rules that are applied when they want to buy out a club.

which is exactly what would precipitate a tighter set of due diligence rules

plus, what owner would would run up greater debt if the consequence of that would be having the club taken off them ?

In the Dale scenario at Bury he bought the club for £1, sold £7m of debt to his brother-in-law’s firm for £70k and will now proceed to dismantle the assets and parcel them out between himself & his brother-in-law

how is a reserve fund with compulsory takeover gonna be any worse that that? (I know, the FA/EFL will find a way)

3 Likes

Leeds

1 Like

I don’t really have anything that imaginative to say either but fully agree that no matter what the team is or how good they are, you’ll have identified with them for a reason (however arbitrary) and that their residual effects on local economies, morale, community living in general is lost because it’s inextricably linked to vampiric venture capitalism is just another fucking horrendous injustice our society has literally built into it. Absolutely sucks.

5 Likes

I’m genuinely gutted for Bury. I’ve posted by views in the football thread, but we were very close to liquidation and passed our deadline with no news. Luckily later in the evening we go the good news, I was hoping that similar would happen to Bury.

Football is totally screwed. There is too much money in the Premier League, prices of players going crazy that’s filtering down to lower leagues who can’t afford to compete. Something needs to be done. But what?

At the other end of the scale Alexei Sanchez collects £2million a month for doing absolutely nothing. Fuck football.

1 Like

It’s stuff like this along with the inflating wage bills of the top teams and the horrific displays of racism, sexism and homophobia which is running rampant in and around professional football which made me a lapsed fan to begin with. Football used to be my favourite pass time and whilst I have no history tied to Bury the same almost happened to Brighton several times before the Gods somehow graced us with a succession of good owners in Tony Bloom and Dick Knight which seems to be getting rarer and rarer these days. I suspec this will happen many more times in the next 10 years and suspect BREXIT may hasten the process for clubs in higher tier leagues so I fear for the future.

Tragic, this sport is in a mess and has been for such a long time that I’m starting to wonder why we accept this as the national sport. Surprised more people aren’t being turned away with the behaviours and attitudes surrounding it. It’s a blood good game ruined by the clowns running it

1 Like

Literally what the FA is supposed to be. A custodian of the game and its clubs.

There’s so much about this situation, the one at Bolton, many in the past and doubtless many in the future that makes me genuinely angry.

First and foremost the ‘fit and proper’ persons test that prospective owners have to undergo is nothing short of a sham. An absolute sham. The EFL are 100% culpable here. Even the most cursory of looks at Steve Dale’s history should have been raising dozens of red flags. Likewise with Bolton and the fact that this Bassini chap, who was declared bankrupt when he was owner of Watford, should have been absolutely nowhere near taking over another football club.

The crocodile tears being shed on Sky Sports News yesterday, with that gurning chump Jim White stood in front of a fucking clock counting down to the EFL’s deadline. The EFL’s deadline which has seen hundreds of people lose their jobs. Fuck them. Fuck them squarely. Absolute shower of cunts. Sky are such an enormous part of the problem with football in this country and this is how the choose to sensationalise the very real and immediate tragedy of a community losing one of the biggest parts of being able to identify.

I don’t necessarily agree. You’ll still have clubs going all out to try and reach the holy grail of Premier League football, you’ll still have supporters ringing phone-ins complaining about a lack of investment in players if and when a club does choose to live within its means. Even well-meaning owners are often guilty of over stretching and bringing clubs to their knees. Until there is a fairer distribution of funds throughout the game as a whole, that will forever be the case. Of course, that is never going to happen until we have people in power who actually want to govern the game properly and act as custodians of the game and the clubs.

I’m one of a small handful of people I know that would much rather still have a club to support on an even footing even if it meant never getting promoted and possibly suffering a couple of relegations instead of paying that little bit extra to potentially bring success.

9 Likes

what a name

1 Like

Fundamental issue is that the EFL are a Members Club - the clubs they ‘regulate’ set the rule book each season.

What owner of a football club - Trust owned aside - is going to vote for the league to have powers that could see them lose their ‘financial asset’ and stop them from running it however they like? Moreso when the clubs with most of the votes (the Championship ones) aspire to join the 20 EPL clubs and chase the dream of untold financial riches by mortgaging themselves up to the eyeballs.

The FA meanwhile are terrified of the prospect of the Premier League cutting ties and going it alone, so they’re not willing to act in any meaningful way - The big clubs are too powerful now due to TV money to be seriously regulated, and if you can’t regulate them, you’re gonna fight a losing battle trying to regulate the rest.

2 Likes

this is summat i was thinking about the other week, man utd used to do pre-season friendlies at gigg coz they used to used it as a training ground but that dried up years ago but it seems like such an odd thing that within a 10 mile radius or so we’ve got two of the richest clubs in the world and two clubs that are being kicked out of the league for going broke

1 Like

and i was reading that city lent their training ground to bury who fully fucked it up but thats mostly beside the point i think

sadly, all true

it’s all a long way from rival factory workers being allowed an afternoon off every week to compete against each other & let off some steam

…or maybe not…canaries in the coalmine of accelerated capitalism I guess…first the factories go, then the clubs & towns themselves

Pretty much this.
When we nearly went to the wall I was happy just to have a club, we quickly won promotion even though our promotion winning team only cost £1million to build.
Zaha - academy and loaned back
Muray - free
Bolasie - £300k
Jedinak £250k

But I was always uncomfortable with the big wages we’ve spent since promotion just to survive. I honestly think I’d rather us just have a club in the championship or league one, without big wages and actually enjoying watching football.

The guy you saw me with at Carshalton is a Watford season ticket holder, has been since his Dad took him to the Vic from the age of about 6.

He was saying that he’s not sure he can be bothered to renew. Partly because he now lives in Carshalton, but also its demoralising having that glass ceiling where the chances of finishing top 8 are almost nil. He much preferred the seasons in the Championship where things are much more competitive.

Of course, every football fan wants their club to be successful - I love having a cup run to the 4th Qualifying Round / 1st Round of the FA Cup, the money we make from that can set the club up for a year or so - we’ve come desperately close to promotion twice in recent seasons but we wouldn’t have the finances to realistically compete in the National League South. I’m so thankful that by and large we have a board that is sensible and will not spend what we can’t afford. Being 100% debt free is such a cause for comfort.

3 Likes

This is a good post