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EFL could not have saved Bury

Any additional action by the English Football League to try to help save Bury FC 'would not have made any difference to the eventual outcome', an independent review has concluded.

The following statement has been issued by the EFL: 'The EFL’s Board of Directors commissioned the Bury FC Review in September 2019 to review and assess the circumstances leading to the withdrawal of Bury FC’s membership of the League on 27 August 2019. In particular, the review considered the manner in which the EFL’s regulations and procedures, and the EFL’s policy in respect of insolvent clubs, were applied by the EFL to Bury FC, and to what effect.

In his report, issued to Clubs in advance of the meeting, Mr Taylor sets out in detail the chronology of events following the acquisition of the Club by Stewart Day in May 2013, its subsequent sale to Steve Dale in December 2018, and the eventual withdrawal of its membership of the EFL in August 2019.

After considering the steps taken by the EFL at each stage, Mr Taylor concludes that the League spent significant time and effort monitoring the situation at Bury FC and applying its regulations to try to force the Club and its owners to meet their commitments. He notes that while it can always be argued, with the benefit of hindsight, that more could have been done, any additional action would not have made any difference to the eventual outcome, which was ultimately caused by a lack of owner funding.

Under the terms of reference for the review, Mr Taylor was not required to make any recommendations regarding changes to EFL Regulations, However, his report makes a number of observations about potential changes which will feed into the ongoing reviews of divisional cost control measures provided for by the Profitability and Sustainability rules in the Championship and Salary Cost Management Protocol in Leagues One and Two, that are already being led by Clubs and the review of other regulations and procedures being led by the Board. It is expected that specific changes will be brought forward for ratification at the EFL’s AGM in June 2020.'

It will be interesting to read the full report when it is issued.

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