This is just the start

be a domino effect throughout the league.

“Believe me, there’s a lot of other clubs on the brink. It’s going to be more and more difficult to keep clubs going.

“It’s heartbreaking for fans, for players, the staff and everyone concerned with Bury.

“But the EFL are not responsible for what happened at Bury. They have overspent in the past and the club has been run badly. That is unfair on the rest of us but also that is not down to the EFL.

“At the moment, anyone could be sent to prison for fraud but still be able to take over a football club as long as he has not had an insolvency in football.”

But EFL chief Debbie Jevans hit back at Scally’s claims, insisting there is no debt crisis.

“My understanding is that the HMRC has said that the insolvency of clubs is currently at the least it has been in the modern era,” she said.

“There are a lot of good and well-run clubs. We are going to take the lessons from this and do everything we can to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”