Bury players consider suing the EFL
BURY’S players are considering launching a legal claim against the EFL for negligence over the league’s decision to allow the sale of the club last December to Steve Dale, whose mismanagement led to the Shakers being kicked out of League One.
Sportsmail understands that some players, including captain Neil Danns, may take advice on whether they have grounds for a court case. Meanwhile, the EFL’s other crisis club, Bolton Wanderers, had better news when the Football Ventures group completed its takeover, so that the Trotters were no longer under immediate
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 to move 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.