Bury players could sue EFL for negligence over 'financial torture' of unpaid wages

Posted Friday, August 23, 2019 by Thesun.co.uk

BURY'S unpaid players could sue the EFL for negligence with the club standing on the brink of extinction.

And if they take their case to the High Court and win, the Football League's ruling body could be forced to stump up more than £2million.

Bury players could sue EFL for negligence over 'financial torture' of unpaid wages
Bury's unpaid players are set to sue the EFL for negligence over unpaid wagesCredit: Reuters

Most of those working with lawyers and the PFA are long gone from Gigg Lane – 16 of the squad that last year gained promotion left this summer.

Boss Paul Wilkinson has only five registered players and they – like those who have already departed – were not paid for over five months.

One of those still remaining, Steven Dawson, has spoken of "financial torture" over the past months and revealed he is in danger of losing his home.

Now SunSport can reveal that legal work is under way to take action against the EFL for failing to do proper financial checks on Steve Dale, who bought the club from previous owner Stewart Day for £1 in December.

The EFL admitted it only began the checks after the deal went through, saying: "Following notification of the transfer of shares at the club, the EFL immediately began to implement its change of control processes.

"Which include submission to the owners and directors test … as well as seeking additional information in regard to the source and sufficiency of funding."

EFL regulations state that "up to date future financial information" must be submitted by a club "as far in advance of the change of control as reasonably possible."

Or, if that is not reasonably practicable, within ten working days after the takeover.

But Dale was not subject to most of that process before his takeover.

Over eight months he has still not provided the EFL with information it requires to be satisfied that he has the money to fund the club.

It is his continued failure to produce proof of funds that leaves Bury within 24 hours of becoming the first club since Aldershot in March 1992 to be kicked out of the league during a season.

A source close to the player group planning their legal group confirmed: "The players have been told that down the line they have a chance of getting their lost wages back because the EFL did not do the normal fit and proper checks when Steve Dale took over.

"Even if the club goes out of business they have been told by lawyers that the EFL may have a case to answer."

Several of the players who went up under ex-boss Ryan Lowe before he left for Plymouth Argyle are understood to have enjoyed salaries of up to £8,000-a-week.

Adding up the total of the money owed to them and to those still left at a club that increasingly looks doomed will make an uncomfortable figure for the EFL following the organisation's admission on Dale's takeover.

Dale won the right to create a CVA allowing him to pay non-football creditors 25p in the £1 and that cost Bury a 12-point reduction.

The players, however, are a separate entity in terms of the wages owed to them.