EFL Suspends Bury Match, Bolton Game To Go Ahead

29 Jul 2019 | Bradley Rial

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The English Football League (EFL) has moved to suspend League One team Bury’s season-opening match against MK Dons on Saturday, 3rd August amid concerns over how the club will be funded moving forwards.

The EFL has also confirmed that Bolton Wanderers’ match against Wycombe Wanderers will go ahead as scheduled after declaring that the club’s further submissions were sufficient to meet the requirements of the League, subject to formal documentation.

The EFL had given Bury and Bolton a deadline of 5pm on Monday, 29th July to provide the League with necessary evidence for how the clubs will be funded amid recent financial difficulties for both teams. After Bury owner Steve Dale failed to provide evidence that there are funds available to clear the club’s debts and play Saturday’s match against MK Dons, the EFL opted to suspend the fixture.

Both Bury and Bolton will start the 2019/20 League One season with 12-point deductions. Bolton entered into administration back in May.

At its meeting on Monday, the EFL Board was “appraised” of the position of Bolton regarding outstanding information requested relating to ongoing matters at the club.

The EFL said its Board held “continued and comprehensive discussions” with Bury’s ownership and other interested parties, but these talks did not yield necessary evidence to demonstrate how the club will be funded.

The EFL added that if it does not receive the necessary evidence by 12pm on Friday, 2nd August it will make a decision on whether to suspend Bury’s match at Accrington Stanley on 10th August.

In a statement, the EFL said: “As has been the case throughout this entire process, the EFL will continue to offer its full assistance to the ownership at Bury, but remains clear that while the League is here to support the club through some extremely complex and complicated issues, the outstanding matters can only be resolved with the cooperation from the club itself.”