Today marks 3 years since the original game took place at Radcliffe FC. A wonderful day in which we all got to see former Bury FC players play against each other to provide joy and cheer to a fanbase that had suffered greatly at the hands of Steve Dale, Stewart Day and the EFL.
The legends game was an occasion for all to come together and to remember the good times whilst looking to what should have been a bright future forging our own path in the world of football.
The game raised after expenses a total of £16084.95, in December 2019 we were approached to assist with covering costs of maintenance on the Gigg Lane playing surface whilst it looked like there was an interested party in buying the football club.
Between the 3 of us, 2 agreed that we were comfortable with making a payment of £4300 towards helping with these costs, and it left an amount of £11,784.95
Over the past 3 years there have been countless people/organisations attempting to claim that these funds were theirs including the original AFC working group, potential buyers of the club, and the society.
We have always maintained that these would be appropriated at the correct time once we knew the definitive outcome of the club, but obviously holding onto funds of that amount for this period comes with its criticism and challenges.
Now, this is not a statement wanting sympathy, forgiveness, praise, or anything else, it’s purely a statement outlining my personal stance and to be honest about events of the last few months, I’ll not be providing any further comment on it on social media or otherwise.
I’d always wanted to do the right thing when it came to legends game, the fans and whatever happened with football in Bury following it.
Rightly or wrongly, my name has been subject to a lot of abuse and accusations over the past three years on social media in which people have gone out of their way to try to ruin me and my business.
You’ll have noticed that for the last 6 months I’ve kept extremely quiet regarding anything to do with football, I felt that it was best for my mental health and my private and professional life to totally remove myself from the ongoing “debates” surrounding Bury F.C, Bury AFC, vote yes, vote no etc especially having given up a large chunk of the last couple of years assisting both AFC and BFCSS in different ways to help them achieve what they wanted to, and I can be extremely proud of the roles I’ve played regardless of whether you’re Pro AFC/Anti AFC, Pro BFCSS/Anti BFCSS. I’m no longer part of any message boards, and I don’t engage in conversations about what is going on with either party.
Earlier in the year, BFCSS chairman Dan Bowerbank on behalf of the BFCSS asked if we would be comfortable with paying the legends money over to the society in instalments to assist the society with ongoing pitch work that needed to be completed. We’d agreed that this was something that could be done, and everything was in place for payments to be made.
However, through no fault of the other two organisers I neglected to handle this due to a variety of ongoing issues in my private life which I felt took more importance than sorting it out and felt that a “it can wait” approach with most things, not just this, was acceptable. So much so that things had gotten on top of me that much I avoided speaking with Ben and Dean because I was ashamed of the fact that I’d not stuck to what I’d agreed with them and couldn’t face the fact that I’d let them down.
I’ve apologised to them both privately, but I also need to say sorry publicly for not handling the situation better and not making them aware that I was on the verge of a mental breakdown when I could have used their help and for letting them be on the receiving end of abuse from people that sit behind keyboards.
Please do not judge them for my actions, I took everything out of their hands by burying my head in the sand when my life around me was falling apart and they will never understand how sorry I am for the way I acted.
And as much as my private life is exactly that, private, I write this knowing that Dan Bowerbank has been a tremendous help when I made him aware of everything that was going on with me and why I’d not stuck to what I’d agreed with him.
A couple of weeks ago as you’ll have no doubt seen on social media, I was subject to a post calling me out, most of you would be wondering why I didn’t engage with it, the answer is simple, I’m not going to engage with all those different people commenting when minds were clearly already made up.
Last week, I was subject to a phone call from Greater Manchester Police off the back of the post on social media, after answering their questions they agreed that there was no wrongdoing on my part and also advised to be careful about handing over the full amount of money in one payment as the divisive nature of football in this town could lead to people being upset with it being handed over and that could fall back on me personally.
I have nothing to hide by letting you all know that I was contacted by the police about the matter and fully cooperated with their questions and they were satisfied with the answers I provided them.
There is currently an amount of £10,984.95 from the original game sat in an account and following both conversations with GMP and Dan Bowerbank, this will be transferred over in increments until elite men’s football returns to Gigg Lane. I will state that both Ben and Dean wanted the full amount to be transferred over, but I made this decision was made based on the advice given by GMP and any comeback on this falls on me and me only.
One thing I will say about this whole situation is that people need to stop the fake accounts, online witch-hunts and the arguing on social media, not only have the 3 people involved in the original legends game been subject to abuse, but so have countless others who have tried to do what they feel is right for the future of football in Bury, whether you agree with what side of the fence they sit on it doesn’t matter, they are all people who are doing what they feel is right in their spare time to try to ensure that football continues in Bury. My reason for highlighting this point is that we’ve all got our own personal stuff to deal with away from football and one day that abuse may lead to the recipient doing something stupid to themselves or someone else.
Mr Chris Murray
