EXCLUSIVE: Michael Gove has written to the FA endorsing an application to rename Bury AFC – as the club’s two supporters’ groups vote to merge for the first time since the explosion from the EFL in 2019
The Secretary of State for Leveling Up, Michael Gove, has written to the FA endorsing Bury AFC’s name change application.
Two supporters’ groups voted to merge earlier this month after years of animosity following expulsion from the EFL in 2019, an outcome that will return football to Gigg Lane next season.
Bury AFC, a phoenix club, play in the ninth tier – the Premier Division of the North West Counties League – and plans are afoot to return to Bury FC with a unified fanbase.
The FA will consider the case and Gove, whose department has pledged £1million funding for the club’s revival, backed Bury fans in a letter sent to Debbie Hewitt on Saturday.
‘I would be grateful if the FA would approve the name change to Bury FC,’ it said. ‘A football club is not its legal status – and owners, players and managers come and go.
‘A football club is its supporters; generations brought together by fleeting, glorious heights, constant hopes, and frequent disappointments.
‘The greatest symbol of a team is the name. The interim board of the new society will soon apply to the FA for the current playing name of Bury AFC to be changed to Bury FC.’
Michael Gove has written to the FA supporting an application to change the name of Bury AFC
The club’s former name still adorns the walls of their former ground, Gigg Lane, in Bury
News/Image Sources: Daily Mail
