Prospective Bury owners C&N Sporting Risk have voiced real concerns they have not been given enough time to complete their takeover of Bury FC.

Steve Dale accepted an offer from the football analytics firm late on Friday night just hours before the deadline that would have seen The Shakers thrown out of the Football League.

The EFL met on Saturday morning and agreed that the parties involved could have until Tuesday at 5pm to get a deal done to preserve the future of the 134-year-old two-time FA Cup winners.

C&N Sporting Risk however have warned that the club is not out of the woods yet given the tight timeframe.

Those concerns have been echoed by Bury North MP James Frith, who was key in brokering the deal having been approached by C&N Sporting Risk director Henry Newman.

Both wanted to extend the deadline further given the impending weekend and Bank Holiday.

C&N Sporting Risk also say that having only been given a clearer picture of the financial state of the stricken Shakers yesterday, their main legal advisor is now not available until Wednesday.

"As we said last night, there are a number of serious outstanding issues to be addressed,” the group told the Press Association.

“It is disappointing the EFL have chosen to go for such a short extension especially given this is a bank holiday weekend and our main legal adviser is unavailable until Wednesday.

"Meeting with her and the solicitors is absolutely fundamental to some serious contractual matters that need addressing and our overall decision-making process. We made the EFL explicitly aware of this and the timeline we required.

"While meetings with legal advisors have taken place prior to this point, only late in the day yesterday did we obtain a clearer picture as to the overall state of the club, hence this request for the extension.

"We will, however, seek to gain answers to the main outstanding questions in the short time available but this does make the task much more challenging.

“It would be a huge pity if the club were to fold because of lack of time to do the due diligence necessary for such a complicated scenario."

Frith believes that a “working week 48-hour extension” starting from Tuesday should have been accepted by the EFL.  

Bury Times:

“I’m relieved the EFL deadline has been extended for Bury to get the right deal,” he said.  

“I fear the extension is not long enough with so much still to be done. The EFL know this.

“Technically the EFL have narrowed and shortened the road they might have handed us.

“A working week 48-hour extension minimum is what I and those of us working on this asked for but this is half that.

“The EFL have taken more than 14 hours to decide this, why expect the bidding party to achieve more in less than the time requested?”

Frith however admitted that he was delighted simply that the club was still alive at all, the Shakers having seen their opening six fixtures of the season suspended before being threatened with expulsion.

“It has been a monumental effort to get this far since June 6th when C&N Sporting Risk director Henry Newman first approached me,” he said.

“Thank you to my team and everyone across the town, the club and supporters trust.

“We can be proud to have got this far and we continue.

“For now, we must trust that the new owners and current owner work in their best interests and ours to get this over the line.

“I’ll continue to fight on all fronts for our best interests and am in frequent contact all day with all parties.

“It’s now or never. Keep the faith and UTS (Up The Shakers).”