BURY owner Steve Dale has amazingly revealed he is waiting for the FA to put his club into the National League for next season.
And Dale would be prepared to step down as chairman of the expelled EFL outfit to make it happen.
Steve Dale hopes Bury are placed in the National League after they were expelled from the Football League
The Shakers were booted out of League One in late August after the EFL claimed they failed to provide proof of funding for the campaign.
Since then, Dale has fought off winding-up petitions and settled debts with the Inland Revenue.
As Bury are still in existence, the club are entitled — as an expelled EFL team under FA rules — to be placed high in the non-league system.
And in Bury’s case that would be the National League set-up — tiers five and six.
At best, they would be placed into the National League itself or National League North.
Dale, who has not publically spoken since October, revealed: “We have lodged an application with the FA to be placed into a league for next season.
“Due to being the chairman when the club was removed from the EFL, I might have to step down to satisfy the National League’s entry criteria and I’m prepared to do that.”
The club lodged their application on the March 31 deadline – confirmed by the FA.
Clubs are usually told what league they can enter in May, although the coronavirus crisis might push that back.
TRAVESTY
Dale explained: “We were a League One club that had just won promotion so we now hope to be placed in the National League.
“Anything lower than that would be a travesty because we’ve been screwed over enough.”
Businessman Dale bought all previous owner Stewart Day’s shares for £1 in December 2018 with the club saddled with £17MILLION of debt.
He negotiated with creditors last summer — reducing that figure to around £5m — preventing the club sliding into liquidation.
But with no revenue coming in after their EFL expulsion, Bury have defaulted on that arrangement.
Yet Dale confirmed he is now seeking to agree a fresh deal to avoid the 135-year-old, two-time FA Cup winners being wound up.
He said: “The problem we’ve got is we won’t know the criteria of that until the FA tell us what league we can enter – but renegotiating the CVA won’t be a problem..
“I just hope the FA do right by us and put us in the division our history, heritage and fans deserve.”
Questions remain over whether a club with Bury’s debt are sustainable in the fifth or sixth tier of English football.
Had the Shakers kept their place in League One this term, they would have picked up £1.6m from the EFL.
Bury were expelled from the Football League earlier this seasonCredit: Getty
But in the National League each club receives £90,000, while in the National North it is just £13,000.
Dale said: “Bury will still be a decent club in the National League. It’s never been a big, high-profile club.
“The sponsors were local people. The fans are local people and we never got massive gates. The club is sustainable.”
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Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
