Bury Association Football Club is a
fan-owned English
association football
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...
club representing the town of
Bury
Bury may refer to:
*The burial of human remains
*-bury, a suffix in English placenames
Places England
* Bury, Cambridgeshire, a village
* Bury, Greater Manchester, a town, historically in Lancashire
** Bury (UK Parliament constituency) (1832–19 ...
, Greater Manchester. It was established in December 2019 as a
phoenix
Phoenix most often refers to:
* Phoenix (mythology), a legendary bird from ancient Greek folklore
* Phoenix, Arizona, a city in the United States
Phoenix may also refer to:
Mythology
Greek mythological figures
* Phoenix (son of Amyntor), a ...
of
Bury F.C.
Bury Football Club is an English association football club based in Bury, Greater Manchester, whose team last played in EFL League Two, the fourth tier of English football, in the 2018–19 season. The team are known as "The Shakers", and ...
, which had recently been expelled from the
English Football League
The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engl ...
(EFL). Bury AFC won the 2021–22
North West Counties Football League
The North West Counties Football League is a football league in the North West of England. Since 2019–20, the league has covered the Isle of Man, Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Merseyside, Cumbria, northern Staffordshire, northern S ...
Division One North championship, earning promotion to the league's Premier Division for the 2022–23 season. The team play their home games at
Stainton Park in nearby
Radcliffe
Radcliffe or Radcliff may refer to:
Places
* Radcliffe Line, a border between India and Pakistan
United Kingdom
* Radcliffe, Greater Manchester
** Radcliffe Tower, the remains of a medieval manor house in the town
** Radcliffe tram stop
* ...
through a groundshare agreement with
Radcliffe F.C.
Radcliffe Football Club (formerly Radcliffe Borough) is an English football club based in Radcliffe, Greater Manchester, Radcliffe, Greater Manchester where they play their games at Stainton Park. The club was formed on 24 May 1949 and currently ...
In October 2022 supporters were urged to vote in a poll regarding a potential amalgamation of the Bury Football Club Supporters' Society (who owned
Gigg Lane
Gigg Lane is a football ground in Bury, Greater Manchester, England, built for Bury F.C. in 1885. The first match was played on 12 September 1885 between Bury and a team from Wigan. One of the world's oldest professional football stadiums, Gig ...
and the "Bury F.C." trading name) and the Shakers Community Society (who owned Bury AFC). If the merger was agreed, a new society - The Football Supporters' Society of Bury - would be formed, based at Gigg Lane, while Bury AFC would change its playing name to Bury Football Club. However, the proposals failed to reach the required 66% threshold from both societies; the Shakers Community Society voted 94% in favour while the BFCSS vote in favour fell short, at 63%. A second poll is to be held in early 2023.
History
Foundation
Crippled by mounting debts,
Bury F.C.
Bury Football Club is an English association football club based in Bury, Greater Manchester, whose team last played in EFL League Two, the fourth tier of English football, in the 2018–19 season. The team are known as "The Shakers", and ...
was expelled from the
English Football League
The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engl ...
(EFL) on 27 August 2019 because of its inability to furnish proof of its financial viability. Although the club continued to exist, fears grew that it would be liquidated and, in December 2019, a group of supporters resolved to form a
phoenix club
The Phoenix Building and Cincinnati Club are two historic buildings in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. The membership of these two clubs was chiefly Jewish.
Located at 812 Race Street, the Phoenix Building was constructed in 1893, desi ...
which they named Bury Association Football Club (Bury AFC).
Some 300 Bury FC fans came forward to help
and they formed a company registered as Bury Football Club (2019) Ltd (trading as Bury AFC), with its office in
Rawtenstall
Rawtenstall () is a town in the borough of Rossendale, Lancashire, England. The town lies 15 miles/24 km north of Manchester, 22 miles/35 km east of Preston and 45 miles/70 km south east of the county town of Lancaster. The town is at the cen ...
. The club is
fan-owned on the basis of one member one vote. Their motto is: "By the fans. For the fans".
The new club immediately applied to the
North West Counties Football League
The North West Counties Football League is a football league in the North West of England. Since 2019–20, the league has covered the Isle of Man, Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Merseyside, Cumbria, northern Staffordshire, northern S ...
, the tenth tier of the English football league system, for membership in the 2020–21 season. The league approved the application on 21 February 2020. The club then also applied to play in the
FA Vase
The Football Association Challenge Vase, usually referred to as the FA Vase, is an annual football competition for teams playing in Steps 5 and 6 of the English National League System (or equivalently, tier 9 or 10 of the overall English footbal ...
. Membership increased and had exceeded 650 by early August 2020.
It reached 1,000 in October, when the team started playing, with each member paying £5 per month.
The formation of the club was followed in the BBC podcast documentary series, Out Of Our League by journalists and Bury fans
Mark Crossley
Mark Geoffrey Crossley (born 16 June 1969) is a football coach and former professional footballer.
As a player, he was a goalkeeper from 1988 until 2011 and he has previously played for numerous clubs in England's top flight, notably for Notti ...
and
Sanny Rudravajhala for
BBC Sounds
BBC Sounds is a Closed platform, walled garden streaming media and audio download service from the BBC that includes live radio broadcasts, audio on demand, and podcasts. The service is available on a wide range of devices, including mobile pho ...
.
Pre-2020-21 season events
Due to the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
, English football league competitions below the top flights were cancelled, but Bury AFC anticipated a September 2020 restart and advertised for a team manager, receiving some 750 applications.
On 29 July,
Ossett United manager and former
Sunderland
Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...
,
Leicester City
Leicester ( ) is a city, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands.
The city lies on the River Soar and close to the eastern end of the National ...
and
Blackpool
Blackpool is a seaside resort in Lancashire, England. Located on the North West England, northwest coast of England, it is the main settlement within the Borough of Blackpool, borough also called Blackpool. The town is by the Irish Sea, betw ...
midfielder
Andy Welsh was appointed as the club's first team manager.
On 10 August, the club announced its first signing, Scottish midfielder Adam McWilliam, aged 25, who had spent the previous season with
AFC Totton
Amalgamated Football Club Totton is a football club based in Totton, Hampshire, England. The club is affiliated to the Hampshire Football Association and is an FA Standard Chartered club. They are currently members of the .
History
The clu ...
in the
Southern League.
The next day, Bury signed forward Liam MacDevitt, also aged 25, from
Stalybridge Celtic.
The draw for the first qualifying round of the
2020–21 FA Vase was completed on 19 August and Bury were drawn away against NWCFL Division One South side
West Didsbury & Chorlton at Brookburn Road. On 26 August, Bury AFC played its first match, a pre-season friendly at
Daisy Hill, and won 5–0.
2020–21 season
The
2020–21 season was the club's inaugural season. The FA Vase tie, played on 19 September, was the team's first competitive game, but they lost 2–1.
The club's first competitive goal was a
penalty
Penalty or The Penalty may refer to:
Sports
* Penalty (golf)
* Penalty (gridiron football)
* Penalty (ice hockey)
* Penalty (rugby)
* Penalty (rugby union)
* Penalty kick (association football)
* Penalty shoot-out (association football)
A p ...
scored by Greg Daniels. On 3 October, they played their first league game, at home against
Steeton, and won 3–2 having been 1–2 down at the end of normal time.
Tony Whitehead had scored in the first half and the match was won after Tom Greaves scored two goals in injury time.
Bury's next two matches were postponed because of local COVID-19 restrictions affecting their intended opponents,
Holker Old Boys (based in
Barrow-in-Furness
Barrow-in-Furness is a port town in Cumbria, England. Historically in Lancashire, it was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1867 and merged with Dalton-in-Furness Urban District in 1974 to form the Borough of Barrow-in-Furness. In 2023 the ...
) and
Pilkington FC (based in
St Helens). They played another phoenix club
AFC Darwen (the successor to
Darwen F.C.) at home on 17 October and won 6–2 after two goals by
Aidan Chippendale
Aidan Luke Chippendale (born 24 May 1992) is an English footballer who plays as a winger for Bury AFC.
Career
Bradford City and Huddersfield Town
Born in Bradford, West Yorkshire, Chippendale played for hometown club Bradford City in their ...
and four by Tom Greaves. They took four points from the next three games to go second in the table but then the season was postponed for six weeks because of the
COVID-19 lockdown restrictions then in force. The season was suspended in December, and was subsequently abandoned on 24 February 2021.
2021–22 season
In the 2021–22 season, Bury AFC played in the
North West Counties Football League Division One North. On 27 March 2022, before a crowd of over 1,800 people, a 4–0 home victory over
St Helens Town secured the club's promotion to the NWCFL Premier Division as divisional champions. Manager Andy Welsh praised his players for their season-long consistency.
2022–23 season
Having previously won four of their first five
NWCFL Premier Division matches, Bury AFC won a televised
FA Cup first qualifying round tie against
North Shields
North Shields () is a town in the Borough of North Tyneside in Tyne and Wear, England. It is north-east of Newcastle upon Tyne and borders nearby Wallsend and Tynemouth.
Since 1974, it has been in the North Tyneside borough of Tyne and Wea ...
2–1,
and, after beating
Congleton Town and
Clitheroe
Clitheroe () is a town and civil parish in the Borough of Ribble Valley, Lancashire, England; it is located north-west of Manchester. It is near the Forest of Bowland and is often used as a base for tourists visiting the area. In 2018, the Cl ...
, were drawn at home in the fourth qualifying round to
National League
The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...
side
York City
York City Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of York, North Yorkshire, England. As of the 2022–23 season, the team compete in the National League, at the fifth tier of the English football league sys ...
,
who beat Bury AFC 2–1 on 15 October 2022.
In early February 2023, Bury AFC were fifth in the NWCFL Premier Division,
and had reached the quarter-finals of the
FA Vase
The Football Association Challenge Vase, usually referred to as the FA Vase, is an annual football competition for teams playing in Steps 5 and 6 of the English National League System (or equivalently, tier 9 or 10 of the overall English footbal ...
after a 2–1 win at
Tring Athletic.
On 11 March 2023, Bury AFC lost the quarter-final against Congleton Town after a penalty shoot-out following a 1–1 draw.
Proposed merger with Bury FC
In May 2022, the Bury FC Supporters Society signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) regarding the future of the club, with the Shakers Community Society on behalf of Bury AFC among the signatories. The MoU set out objectives including bringing professional football back to Bury, and uniting and growing the fan base.
In July 2022, Bury fans were asked to back a merger of the two principal supporters' groups (BFCSS and the Shakers Community Society) to bring professional football back to Gigg Lane.
However, continued tensions between Bury FC and Bury AFC hampered progress.
A Bury FC fans protest against the merger led to games at Radcliffe Juniors FC's playing fields being cancelled on 3 September 2022,
while a 12-year old girl and a player were injured after a
flare
A flare, also sometimes called a fusée, fusee, or bengala in some Latin-speaking countries, is a type of pyrotechnic that produces a bright light or intense heat without an explosion. Flares are used for distress signaling, illumination, ...
was thrown at
Stainton Park during Bury AFC's FA Cup first qualifying round tie against North Shields on the same day, though it was unclear if this incident was linked to the protest.
Local football supporters were urged to vote in a poll, facilitated by the
Football Supporters' Association
The Football Supporters' Association (The FSA) is the national, democratic, representative body for football supporters in England and Wales. They are the leading advocates for supporter ownership, better fan engagement, cheaper ticket prices, t ...
, regarding a potential merger of BFCSS (who owned
Gigg Lane
Gigg Lane is a football ground in Bury, Greater Manchester, England, built for Bury F.C. in 1885. The first match was played on 12 September 1885 between Bury and a team from Wigan. One of the world's oldest professional football stadiums, Gig ...
and the
Bury FC
Bury Football Club is an English association football club based in Bury, Greater Manchester, whose team last played in EFL League Two, the fourth tier of English football, in the 2018–19 season. The team are known as "The Shakers", and ...
name) and the Shakers Community Society (who owned Bury AFC). Warned by the FSA that there was no "viable and sustainable alternative to the merger", the two groups both recommended their members to vote in favour. If the merger was agreed at special meetings on 28 October and 11 November, a new society - The Football Supporters' Society of Bury - would be formed, based at Gigg Lane, while Bury AFC would change its playing name to Bury Football Club.
However, the proposals failed to reach the required 66% threshold from both societies; the Shakers Community Society voted 94% in favour while the BFCSS vote in favour fell short, at 63%. Within hours of the vote being declared on 28 October 2022, Bury MBC announced it would "now not be making that
£450,000funding available", but remained "happy to have further discussions with all concerned parties on the way forward".
In March 2023, a second poll regarding a merger between Bury FC and Bury AFC was announced. BFCSS's Daniel Bowerbank talked about uniting the "broken fanbase", adding: "We've got a team with no stadium and then the other side with a stadium but no football team." Bury AFC's Phil Young said: "This is really the only way forward for us."
Ground
In 2020, there was no possibility of the new club playing its matches at
Gigg Lane
Gigg Lane is a football ground in Bury, Greater Manchester, England, built for Bury F.C. in 1885. The first match was played on 12 September 1885 between Bury and a team from Wigan. One of the world's oldest professional football stadiums, Gig ...
, home of Bury FC, and a groundshare was agreed with
Radcliffe FC for the
2020–21 NWCFL season, so the team's home venue is Stainton Park (currently called the Neuven Stadium for sponsorship reasons) in
Radcliffe
Radcliffe or Radcliff may refer to:
Places
* Radcliffe Line, a border between India and Pakistan
United Kingdom
* Radcliffe, Greater Manchester
** Radcliffe Tower, the remains of a medieval manor house in the town
** Radcliffe tram stop
* ...
, which is about 2.5 miles (4 km) south-west of Bury.
The ground has a capacity of 4,000 with 350 seats.
Bury AFC enquired about renting Gigg Lane but the request was rejected on 5 April 2022 as "not feasible" by the Bury FC Supporters Society who cited commercial risks and imbalances that could jeopardise a future merger with Bury AFC.
Players
Current squad
Source:
(3rd captain)
Officials and staff
Honours
League championships
*
North West Counties Football League
The North West Counties Football League is a football league in the North West of England. Since 2019–20, the league has covered the Isle of Man, Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Merseyside, Cumbria, northern Staffordshire, northern S ...
** Division One North (1) 2021–22
Rivalries
Bury AFC being a new club, supporters of the old
Bury F.C.
Bury Football Club is an English association football club based in Bury, Greater Manchester, whose team last played in EFL League Two, the fourth tier of English football, in the 2018–19 season. The team are known as "The Shakers", and ...
have considered
Bolton Wanderers F.C
Bolton Wanderers Football Club () is a professional football club based in Horwich, Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in . The club played at Burnden Park for 102 years from 1895 after moving from their original home at Pike's ...
,
Rochdale A.F.C and
Oldham Athletic
Oldham Athletic Association Football Club is a professional football club in Oldham, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system.
The history of Oldham Athletic ...
to be their main rivals together with
Accrington Stanley
Accrington Stanley Football Club is a professional association football club based in Accrington, Lancashire, England. The club competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. They have spent their complete his ...
and
Wigan Athletic
Wigan Athletic Football Club () is an English professional association football club based in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. The team competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system.
Founded in 1932, ...
, amongst other fringe rivals. However, meetings between clubs are limited to
pre-season
In an organized sports league, a typical season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session: for example, in Major League Baseball the season lasts approximately from the last week of March to the last week of Se ...
friendlies due to Bury AFC’s position lower in the
football pyramid
In sports leagues, promotion and relegation is a process where teams are transferred between multiple divisions based on their performance for the completed season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are often called open leagues. ...
.
References
External links
Official website of the North West Counties Football League
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2019 establishments in England
Association football clubs established in 2019
Fan-owned football clubs in England
Football clubs in England
Football clubs in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury
North West Counties Football League clubs
Phoenix clubs (association football)