Bury FC and Bury AFC vote to merge and bring football back to Gigg Lane

Bury FC Supporters' Society and Bury AFC have both voted overwhelmingly in favour of a merger.

They will come together under the name Bury and be back playing at Gigg Lane next season!

Members of both clubs failed to reach a two-thirds majority in the first merger vote in October.

This time 90.1% of the Bury FC Supporters' Society and 97% of Bury AFC members voted to form one club to play at Gigg Lane from next season.

Having a unified club in Bury means it also now qualifies for local council and government levelling up funding with £1.3m is available in total - £450,000 from Bury Council and the rest coming from the government's levelling up fund.

A statement on the AFC Bury website said;

The motion to adopt the Gigg Lane Stadium as the football club’s home playing venue was approved by 97% of the vote. 1116 were in favour, 34 against and 9 abstentions.

The motion to adopt Bury Football Club as the playing name was approved by 92% of the vote. 1046 were in favour, 95 against and 24 abstentions.

The Resolution that the Society and Bury Football Club Supporters’ Society Limited (Register number 29385R) (“BFCSS”) shall be amalgamated pursuant to section 109 of the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014 was approved by 97% of the vote. 1109 were in favour, 35 against and 15 abstentions.

As the Bury Football Supporters’ Society also approved their motion to amalgamate with a 90% majority we are pleased to confirm that the amalgamation will proceed subject to the Confirmatory Vote which will now begin and the results announced at the next General Meeting at 7 pm on 19th May.

AFC Bury play in the Premier Division of the North West Counties League, the ninth tier of the English football pyramid, staging their home games a few miles down the road from Gigg Lane at Stainton Park, Radcliffe and also Bury fans completed a deal to buy back their old Gigg Lane ground in February 2022 and currently trade as Bury FC but with no team.

There has been many disputes and division between some of the two fan groups but hopefully, this will now see some unity and most of all a club back at Gigg Lane representing the local community of Bury.