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Bury owner asks fans to stump up

Bury owner Steve Dale has asked fans and local businesses to raise £2.7m by the end of today to save Bury from expulsion from the Football League. Given his track record, he's got a nerve: Fans pledge sought

Dale agreed the Bury takeover rapidly in December with the former owner Stewart Day, a property developer who was facing several of his companies falling into multimillion-pound insolvencies leaving scores of investors unpaid. It is widely agreed that Day pumped money into the club beyond a scale that was sustainable.

Many Bury supporters were immediately concerned that Dale's business record appeared to consist largely of buying failing companies, selling their assets and seeing them liquidated or dissolved.

One Bury fan speaking on Radio 5 made the point that neither of the last two owners had any emotional connection with the club which had not been the case in the past.

It has been suggested on social media that Bury should 'do a Rangers' and start again at the bottom. But they do not have the resources of Rangers and there are many former Football League clubs still languishing in the non-league pyramid.

There are supposedly four parties interested in purchasing the club and the EFL may agree to the short extension to the expulsion deadline requested by the sports minister.

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