[Arcane Astral Aeons]

was on the cards to be honest

sad to see a community and their fans losing their club
as i said in a previous thread
why didn`t those greedy premier league clubs and those "oh i cannot live on £350,00 a week" players
offer to help out?
please don`t tell me they could not have donated at least some of their over inflated wages to help out
i guess expensive houses and flashy sports cars are more important
i know its not the premier league`s fault this has happened
but for them to have at least offered money to help out wouldn`t have hurt

gutted for the Bury players and all connected with them

[Blue Baggie]

Disgraceful in this day and age, those with billionaire owners and countless millions in the bank sit back and do nothing. The EFL should be made to pay up after they approved the last take over.
If it's your club, you vet the membership. Don't ban your members when they fall on hard times. HELP THEM.

[silverbaggie]

Very sad.

When they were promoted from Division 2 last season they were widely regarded as one of the best teams in the division at that time.

My hope is that other teams from the so called 'unimportant leagues' don't find themselves in a similar position. Could Bolton Wanderers be next?

[talkSAFT]

The Football World would think a lot more of the ManCity Owner if he opened his back-pocket to keep them going.
My old work colleague supported Bury (and ManCity) and I went to Gigg Lane twice in the 90s: nice enough ground, and friendly fans. (Peschesolido got a hat-trick for us in the one game).

[Amelia Chaffinch]

I am disgusted with the football world. Warped. Because of one dubious businessman, a load of people lose their jobs and a community loses their club. Shameful.

[Northwalesbaggie]

I blame the football Heiracy from top to bottom. The game has been stolen away from the genuine fans for the sake of big business. Shame on them all. To every Bury fan, i feel for you. Your club WILL comeback stronger sooner than later.

Every Club from the PL downwards should be owned in part by the fans via a supporters Trust with a real voice on how clubs are run.

[Onetruebaggie]

Gutted for the fans of Bury, I hope out of the ashes, they can reform in some way like those that have fell in the past and be reborn! Forever part of the footballing family, good luck Bury.

COYB

[Devongone]

The truth is that football itself is based on an unsustainable model. The club I've supported all my life is tied by debt to an owner who'd drown it in the canal if it weren't for the fact he would then certainly lose the millions he's owed. As we can only ever pay off the interest on our debt we are locked in a death spiral with him. Our existence has become a form of illusion - he'd like to sell us, but he wouldn't get far on Dragon's Den when he "drilled down into the numbers." He'd very quickly be asked whether his successful enterprises were part of the package and when they weren't, he'd be back in the lift.

We are sustained by our fans' belief we really exist. Clubs from the Championship down sustain their fans on this gruel of lies. It's zombie football. I feel terrible for the Bury fans. Their owner is a crook, but no one should be able to buy a club and set about destroying part of a community for £1. But the hierarchy of the FA and EFL are plucky amateurs who sometimes find themselves swimming with sharks. Their procedures, rules and punishments are inadequate. Why must Bury be condemned to death? Why couldn't they be suspended for the season and relegated if they are capable of re-forming next season? The EFL could work with them (the fans and whoever remains) to examine efforts to sell and re-form the club and, though they'd be coming back from scratch, at least they wouldn't be coming back from the dead. As things stand the football authorities allow a serial prick to become a club owner and eventually are forced to put to death the club's twitching and drained remains because they have no other option.

Blackpool somehow rode out the Oystons, Notts County have just about managed to save their Danish bacon, Bolton is looking bleak and Oldham is looking even bleaker than in real life. I hate what has happened to Bury but there are plenty of dead men walking out there.

[BaggieSteve]

Like every poster so far, I feel both extremely sad for the Bury fans and angry that, by the look of it, the wider footballing hierarchy doesn't give a sh*t about their club. As in all these things, it's the genuine lifelong supporters who lose out (let's face it, if you support Bury you're unlikely to be a glory hunter), people who have been going for years, through thick and thin (but mainly thin) and for whom the town has lost something genuinely important to their identity and sense of community.

As someone who spent a career working in the private sector, I appreciate the principles of the free market and that unsustainable and uncompetitive companies go to the wall, with all the social fallout that entails; but football clubs are not like listed FTSE companies, the position they assume in a social context is different to companies, even though the latter are providers of essential employment. I also hear the argument that football should be run on better business lines which would include allowing clubs to fail - and I'd agree there is vaidity in this - but, if that is the case, then a number of high profile, premier league clubs should have gone to the wall years ago, with the level of debt they are carrying. The advantage for them is that Sky money or acquisition by a sovereign wealth fund has completely distorted the business model of P&L, and allows them to just about service the debts they accumulate. Bury have no such luxury.

For me, an unpalatable feeling is that football has lost much of its soul; the only clubs that seem to matter are those who appear on MOTD and who populate the websites and back pages with filler stories of little importance. The increasing availability of televised football has allowed a football "fan" in Torquay, or elsewhere similar, or to declare his undying love for Man United/Man City/Liverpool (delete as appropriate), buy the replica shirt, watch his team from the comfort of his/her sofa and never venture near an actual football ground, least of all the one occupied by his local, small town club which just happens to play several leagues below the EPL and so gets no publicity, except when it folds.

I just wish that the footballing community - by which I suppose I mean those administrators in the higher reaches of the Football League and FA - would care about those small clubs desperately trying to survive from hand to mouth, rather than enjoying the trappings of wealth that come from the obscene amounts of money associated with the EPL.

I apologise if I sound like a grumpy old git who yearns for the days of "jumpers for goalposts" as I'm not really like that (others may disagree) but I feel really strongly that this is just another example of "I'm alright Jack, so f*ck you".

[talkSAFT]

Absolutely spot-on, Steve.

The 'hierarchy' that you mention are more or less anonymous. But they'll no doubt smugly defend themselves - and their Bonuses - by declaring that "Football" is more popular than ever. But I'd love to see someone like Paxman grill them about Bury and Bolton.....and what plans are in place to save most of the EFL (including ourselves) from the same fate in years to come.