EFL Give Bury Tuesday Deadline to Complete Takeover and Save Struggling Club

The English Football League have given Bury a deadline of 5pm on Tuesday 27th August for their proposed takeover to be completed.

Steve Dale purchased the Shakers in December 2018 and paid an outstanding tax bill three months later to prevent a winding up order from HM Revenue and Customs, but financial problems have since resurfaced. Five of the club's fixtures in the 2019/20 League One season have already been suspended, whilst they were also blocked from taking part in the League Cup this year. 

On Friday evening - hours before the original deadline of 23:59 BST - Dale announced that a deal had been agreed to sell Bury to analytics company C&N Sporting Risk, as reported by ​BBC.

In response to the owner's claim, an official ​EFL statement on Saturday read: "[We] received notification that an offer for the club had been accepted and a request was submitted to extend for a further period in order to successfully conclude a sale.

"The Board have agreed to work exclusively with the club and C&N Sporting Risk over this Bank Holiday weekend in an attempt to finalise the change of control and achieve a positive outcome for Bury FC.

"If in the event a successful outcome is not achieved by [5pm on Tuesday], then Bury FC’s share in the EFL will be withdrawn and its membership in the League will come to an end."

The board also confirmed that no more of the Shakers' matches this campaign will be postponed, explaining that further delays would threaten the integrity of the competition.