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Latest News and Articles
Thank you for your continued support of the club. Bury FC is a community, fan-owned football club competing in the North West Counties Football League Premier Division. #BuryFC | #PartOfIt
Football and Education College Pathway with Football Futures
We have finalised an amazing partnership with Football Futures Group to create an industry-leading college football programme for boys and girls, starting September 2025 all based on-site at Gigg Lane.
The programme is set to offer the very best environment and career focused pathways to young people in the region, alongside BTEC Sport vocational studies with Access Sports College.
Using the power of Bury FC the programme promises to be a special and unrivalled course of its type, providing a variety of opportunities both on and off the pitch.
Football Futures will build up-on its successful academy site in the centre Manchester, based at the University of Manchester and will help provide further football and employability pathways to all Football Futures students, staff and stakeholders.
Football Futures managing director Paul McGuire said: “We’re extremely proud to collaborate with a club such as Bury FC and we hope to contribute to the re-build of this historic football club. Our dream will be to create players for both the men’s and women’s 1st teams, whilst also offering routes into careers within football and sports as a whole.”
Casey Lynchey, Bury FC Community Development Officer added: “This is another exciting development for the club and one we were pleased to get over the line. We have been looking at ways to bring further education pathways to Gigg Lane and working alongside Paul McGuire at Football Futures and Access Sport College, with Leon Mike, our u23s manager, leading the football operations, is the perfect solution.”
Look out for a range of open days and taster sessions throughout November and December, interested Under 16s (School year 11) can request an invite by emailing Paul McGuire at: headoffice@footballfuturesgroup.com
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Neil Sears steps down as CEO
We can confirm the resignation of CEO & Club Secretary, Neil Sears.
Further comment will be released in due course.
Message from Dave McNabb
Dave McNabb has released the following message to supporters:
Good evening Shakers,
I know it’s been a turbulent time over the last couple of days with the events that have unfolded but I wanted to reach out to you all and ask that we all continue to focus on the football, keep driving the team on and try to remain positive.
I’d like to place on record my thanks to Phil and Marcel who brought me into the club. The pair have worked tirelessly in the background and have been a driving force in getting us to where we are today.
As we enter a transition period for the club there will be lots of opinions and thoughts about how we move forward, we must support the board behind the scenes to navigate us though this challenging time and trust the upcoming electoral process will deliver us the right people and structure to continue to propel the club forward.
In the meantime, let’s all do our bit to ensure we achieve our goals and objectives on the pitch this year. Whether that is picking the team, coaching the team, playing staff, volunteers or fans, we all have our roles to play to ensure this season is a success. We have had a very positive start and we couldn’t have achieved what we have so far without you, the fans. The team now needs you more than ever, in your numbers and as loud and proud as ever.
See you tomorrow,
Dave
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Board Statement: Resignations Confirmed
The club has today received the resignations of both Phil Young (FSSB Chair) and Marcel De Matas (FSSB Board Member & Football Chair).
Phil will not stand for re-election in the upcoming Football Supporters Society of Bury (FSSB) elections and will depart the club after over four years as chair, of first Shakers Community, and then FSSB from 2023.
In his time, the club has evolved from the very bottom of the football pyramid and he was the driving force behind the financial sustainability and reporting that is in place today. He led the club’s commitment to the merger process, working with the stakeholders securing the ground which enabled the return to Gigg Lane last year.
Most recently, his work to secure over £750,000 funding has transformed the stadium into the new era, with the installation of the 3G pitch over the summer of 2024 and soon to be installed LED floodlighting.
He leaves with the club in a healthy financial position to move onto the next stage.
Marcel has indicated he will be standing down with immediate effect from both his role on the FSSB board, which he was duly elected upon in 2023, and as Chair of the Football Club.
As football chair, a role which he began in 2021, Marcel has led diligently on football-related matters, covering various roles that make the operations side of the club tick. From chairing the football board meetings, all the way through the club to liaising with and assisting managing the large group of matchday volunteers. Marcel has always been on hand to offer support and guidance to supporters and his optimistic energy will be missed from the day-to-day running of the club.
We wish to place on record our thanks to both for their commitment to the cause and playing a pivotal role in the re-emergence of Bury Football Club following the events of 2019.
The FSSB board will take time to reflect on these decisions in the coming days before looking to make the decisions around the next steps for the club.
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Club Statement: Volunteer Roles
We wish to provide an update and inform all supporters following a review of volunteering practices within the club this week.
Firstly, and understandably, the club has received a lot of feedback from supporters about the role of one of our volunteers John Raftery on Wednesday.
We have been in regular contact with John since Wednesday, both offering apologies for the upset caused and working on the solution to move forward. A conversation was had between a member of the board and CEO Neil Sears regarding John’s role. This led to confusion, miscommunication and caused unnecessary stress on a volunteer. We greatly regret this action.
In line with current structure at the club, Football Chair Marcel De Matas has taken responsibility in trying to bring about a resolution to this unfortunate situation.
We can confirm that John Raftery is welcome to continue in his current role as a volunteer, both during the week at Gigg Lane and on our hospitality reception on matchdays. John will come back to us on this, once he has had chance to consider the offer.
What happened on Wednesday was a mistake, and a function of poor communication and decision making within the club. It was the result of too much pressure, too little time and not enough clarity on who should be deciding what. We will do more to ensure this does not happen again.
Secondly, as part of this work and where some of the confusion on this issue has stemmed from, we are in the process of reviewing all of our volunteer roles.
Our primary concern is always safety and security in the stadium. There are occasions where we have staff and volunteers going beyond what we expect of them, and this enthusiasm can sometimes cause problems.
We are trying to find a balance, but on occasions we need to reduce the responsibilities people take on for the good of the club or those individuals. This will sometimes cause frustration but it is always done with the right intent.
We do not want, for example, volunteers engaging with people who have become aggressive or threatening. We would prefer them not to do this online but have no control over social media. We certainly do not want people to do this in person. We want to provide more clarity on what is expected and will work on this over the forthcoming weeks.
Equally, we have had incidents where staff have been threatened or abused by supporters. Supporters will always have opinions and criticism is part of any job in football. There is a line that should not be crossed however, and we will continue to take action where that happens.
We welcome supporters working with the club to achieve an environment which helps it prosper and thank all for their patience whilst we have dealt with any club matters both privately, and as promptly as possible.
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