DALE’S LATE BID WON’T CLOUD AMBITION OF AFC

BURY AFC is becoming ‘real’ for chairman Chris Murray with a managerial appointment imminent after being accepted into the North West Counties League First Division North.

The phoenix club have been placed in the Step 6 league for the 2020-21 season and preparations are well underway for their debut campaign.

The new Shakers were formed in December after Bury FC were expelled from the EFL and fears grew it would be liquidated.

Steve Dale, the owner of the original club, is believed to have lodged an 11th-hour application with the FA before the March 31 deadline to join the National League from next season.

Dale, who bought Bury for £1 in December 2018, has accepted he would have to stand down should they be admitted into the National League due to the fact he was chairman when the League One club was removed from the EFL.

The FA confirmed it has received applications from two clubs to be placed in the National League System which have not yet been determined.

“I heard that an application was submitted by the original club to try and get into the National League, but there has been no feedback on that as of yet,” Murray told The NLP. “I’d assume there will be something over the next couple of weeks.

“We all want the club to be saved but it’s got to that point now where the FA has decided that they’re happy with the application we’ve put forward and happy for us to be in the North West Counties.”

More than 500 supporters have signed up to the new club’s £60-a-year membership scheme to have their say in how it is run – but not everyone is in favour of AFC.

“I got into this to try and put a bit of pressure on Steve Dale to sell Bury FC,” said Murray. “Throughout the whole process I’ve always thought he’s going to sell, he’s got to sell and we can look at the structure we’ve put in place going towards helping whoever the new owners were.

“As the weeks have gone on it became more real that he wasn’t going to sell the club. That’s the bit that has been hard because the fanbase is divided. You try and be as mindful of those supporters that aren’t yet on board with the idea of Bury AFC and want the club to be saved.”

There has been opposition too from the North West Counties League, who withdrew their support for Bury AFC’s application to join the division after the season was made null and void.

“I don’t have any issues with the North West Counties putting that

out,” said Murray. “They approved our application pre-Covid and it was being setup with the restructure (of NonLeague). There were a lot of clubs that had applied to be moved up based on that restructure, but when everything was made null and void they felt if they can’t do the restructure then it’s something they needed to put on the backburner.

“I’m glad The FA have approved the application. Fortunately a few things happened which meant they were able to put us in the league.”