Bury captain and former Blackpool midfielder Neil Danns sends strong message to Steve Dale

Bury owner Steve Dale had been given until 5pm on Tuesday to come up with a plan for paying the club's debts and funding them going forward or sell them to someone who can.

It had been hoped that C&N Sporting Risk would be the answer but the London-based firm pulled out of the deal 90 minutes before the deadline, citing concerns over the club's confusing debt structure.

The EFL subsequently decided to withdraw Bury's membership, which will almost certainly result in the 134-year-old club facing liquidation.

“You’ve destroyed lives," Danns said to Dale, speaking to TALKsport. “I would say look what you’ve done.

“This should never have happened. If you thought you could not move this club forward in a positive way you should never have taken over because you’ve literally destroyed lives, because that’s what this football club meant to so many fans.

“When you see the devastation of the fans I just think I have to say something.

“It’s unbelievable. I still can’t believe it.

“We have been in as normal, training. I don’t think anyone really believed that this was going to happen.

“We were just preparing every single week as though the next game was going to be on, the next game was going to be on.

“For it to happen so suddenly, it’s still really unbelievable. For a club with so much history and that has added so much to the league, for it to just be gone like that is just unimaginable.

“I’ve come to have a special bond with the fans and created some amazing memories, especially last year (when Bury won promotion from League Two).

“At this moment in time I just feel for them the most because you have got people who have been going to the game for years. It’s like every story, you go to the game with your Grandad, your Mum, your Dad, your brothers, it’s such a community. It means so much to people.

“For me, it’s starting to hit me harder because I have got young sons myself. I know what it is like to take them to watch my boyhood team Liverpool and the bond that gives us. To see that taken away from future fans is just devastating.

“Football brings not just football on the pitch but it is so much more than that. This whole situation just does not feel real.”