Bury EXCLUSIVE: Owner Steve Dale asks fans and businesses to pledge £2.7m by TONIGHT to save club from EFL expulsion
Bury owner Steve Dale has asked supporters and local business to pledge money to help save the in-crisis club.
In his latest interview with talkSPORT, the Shakers chief says any money sent in will be repaid in kind and again insisted he ‘only wants to save’ the League One club.
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Bury have until midnight on Friday to avoid being expelled from the English Football League, and Dale says the club need to raise £2.7MILLION to prevent being kicked out.
The owner also remarked that he “could walk out and just say ‘I don’t give a s**t about Bury’”, but is committed to saving the club.
He told talkSPORT host Jim White on Friday morning: “Fans, anyone out there who will pledge money to come to us…
“If they come to us and say we’ll put £100 in, £1000 in, if the big players put in £100,000, £500,000, whatever it is, we want it pledged to the company.
“We need a pledge of £2.7m plus to save Bury.
“If the company, Bury Football Club, needs the money and needs to use it, they’ll put up shares and pay 2.5% interest on that money.
“We don’t need it, let me say that, unless the EFL pull another stroke.
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“So what we’re looking to do now is go out there and say to local businesses – we’ve got massive firms in our areas, we’ve got the Boohoo boys, Together Finance, the old card guy Ron Wood, we’re got loads of people within Bury who will maybe look at it and think, ‘well it’s short change out of my pocket, I’ll pledge some money’.
“If we take any money off someone we’ll pay interest on it and we will secure it on shares in the club.
“Let me make this clear, we’re not looking for charity here, because we don’t need it. But the EFL want it.
“The EFL have made this ridiculous claim that we need this money, but we’re saying we don’t!”
EFL chiefs have told Dale to provide evidence they have the necessary funding for their campaign. The owner has repeatedly insisted he has fulfilled this request, but the EFL claim he hasn’t.
Dale says the league body keep moving the goalposts and has accused the EFL of ‘having an agenda’ against Bury.
Asked if he will sell the club TODAY if a bid comes in, he said: “I’ll do either or!
“All want to do is save Bury, that’s what I’ve done from day one.
“I got Bury, after the CVA, in the best position it’s been in donkey’s years. What I said in my first interview was, I’m here to sort Bury and then I will pass it on to a younger and more able custodian.
“If I had sold it to someone like Smurthwaite [Norman Smurthwaite – the former Port Vale owner whose offer to buy Bury was rejected by Dale] or Joseph Cala, who used to have Gateshead, could you image what the fans would have said then? ‘Fancy selling it to him’.
“I could bow out and just say, ‘I don’t give a s**t about Bury’, and walk away from it.
“But I don’t want to do that. I’ve put a lot of time a lot of love and a lot of effort into the club.”
So, are Bury going to survive?
“That’s up to the EFL, they are the people causing this,” Dale added.
“We’ve done the CVA, I pledged £2.3m to make that happen, and they’ve come up with another £2.7m.
“So if the general public are willing to pledge an amount, send pledges and we can all get our heads together, total them up and go back to the EFL and say, ‘we’ve got pledges of this money, how can you shut Bury FC?’
“I’m pleading with them, just extend it [the expulsion deadline].
“On what grounds can they possibly shut one of the oldest clubs in bloody England for?
“They’re saying, ‘maybe £1.5m will be needed’. Maybe? It’s a projection for Christ sake! This isn’t want we NEED, it’s a projection for the year going forward, Christ almighty!
“How can you shut one of the oldest clubs in England on a projection? It’s a bloody joke!
“You couldn’t write the s**t the bloody EFL have come up with, you couldn’t write it.”
The Shakers have yet to play a first-team match in 2019-20 after having each of their first six fixtures suspended.
Dale said on Thursday there were four parties interested in buying the club, but no deal has yet to come fruition and it is unclear if they will be granted an extension to the expulsion deadline if a true buyer comes forward.
Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham this week wrote to EFL chief executive Debbie Jevans asking for the club to be granted more time, while supporters have also staged protests at their Gigg Lane stadium this week.
Former club director Joy Hart – and daughter of club legend Les Hart – handcuffed herself to the ground and a coffin reading ‘RIP Bury FC 1885-?’ was leaned up against the doors of the directors’ entrance.