Bury owner Steve Dale has told talkSPORT the EFL are single-handedly stopping him from steering the crisis-hit League One club to financial security.
The businessman – who is battling from terminal leukaemia – also revealed his lawyers told him to walk away, but instead vowed to stay and sort out the mess ‘for the people who are working 20 hour days’ to save the club.
The Shakers were promoted as League Two runners-up last term but they will NOT begin their new third tier campaign this weekend, with their opening game against MK Dons being postponed by league chiefs over the current uncertainty surrounding the club.
Dale bought Bury for £1 from former chairman Stewart Day in December in hope of rescuing the debt-ridden side, but his task was hit with a huge blow as further debts ‘came out of the woodwork’ – leaving Bury players and staff without pay.
The club’s financial sorrows lifted slightly on Wednesday when a winding-up petition from HM Revenue and Customs for £1million in unpaid taxes was dismissed by the High Court.
Dale had also already agreed a company voluntary arrangement (CVA) – a deal struck between insolvent companies and their creditors to pay back some of what they owe in order to start again with a clean slate – which means all players who had outstanding funds owed to them have now been paid, although it also means they will start the season on -12 points.
Dale insists he has given EFL evidence the players have been paid as well as sufficient proof of funds to get their season up and running.
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But the EFL have denied this, and have given the owner a deadline of noon on Friday to provide the guarantees they need, or the league’s board will have to postpone the club’s second game, against Accrington on September 10, as well.
EFL boss Debbie Jevans has said Bury are being treated in exactly the same way as the other 71 EFL clubs.
But Dale says he and the club ‘need help’ from league chiefs instead of ‘being beaten with a stick’ about their rules.
In a rare broadcast interview with talkSPORT host Jim White on Thursday, Dale said: “I want to make this clear – I didn’t run this debt up, we inherited this nightmare.
“We understood we had an amount of debt, but not the amount that came out of the woodwork. It ended up about £12m or £13m in the end.
“My priority is not to win friends and influence people, but to save a football club, which I’m doing a pretty good job of I think.
“We just need some help.
“The MK Dons game should go ahead, without a doubt. I can’t see what it’s done to help anybody.
“They (The EFL) need to come up with a solution which doesn’t result in beating people with a stick.
“Calling games off, deducting points – there are ways around this. All these clubs in the mire have one common denominator – the previous owners have caused mayhem.
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“Bury was acting like a Premier League clubs without the funds. We had players on £9,000 a week, players sat at home not playing on £5,000 or £6,000 a week – this was a League Two club with 3,500 fans!
“We’ve taken a lot of stick for letting a lot of players go and we’ve got fantastic players who want to join us, but the embargo is stopping them and we now run the risk of losing them because of the league.
“I need people to help us, and when I say people I’m talking about the league. They’ve got to understand that they’ve got to help clubs that have been violated by previous owners and their actions are preventing players from joining us.
“We’ve had no celebrations for going up or anything, we’ve had to cut out the deadwood and poison in the club.
“We’ve had a bit of a bad run over the last month or so because of all this, but I’ve got some fantastic people who have joined us – the manager, assistant manager, sporting director, general manager.
“All the people are pulling round and I’ve got to keep it going, I’ve got to do it, I’ve got to get it over the line for the people who are working 20 hour days, like me, to save the club.
“The league needs to see that. They need to see that we’re not the like the past owners of these clubs that have hit the rocks – we’re the poor buggers who are trying to sort it out and we need help.
“We don’t need rules and beating with a stick. Commercial sense needs to take place here, because we’ve done nothing wrong.”