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A consortium headed by supporters group Est.1885 have entered into a period of exclusivity to buy Bury FC and their Gigg Lane home.

Bury were expelled from the EFL in August 2019 and placed into administration in November 2020.

"The party involved wants to restart Bury and get it back into the leagues and running as it should be," said administrator Steven Wiseglass.

He told 91Èȱ¬ Radio Manchester: "I'm confident they can drive this forward."

"They've got until the end of November to sign the contracts. I'm hoping we should be in a position to complete the sale by the end of the year.

"Once the money comes in it will be used to pay the existing debts. The club will be debt-free.

"If they can get everything sorted that they need to then I would be extremely hopeful they will be back in the league pyramid next season."

After Bury FC was expelled from the English Football League in August 2019, supporters formed a separate club, Bury AFC, which was admitted to the 10th-tier North West Counties League Division One North for last season.

Est.1885 said in a statement: "We believe we can achieve much of what is needed in the short to medium term with grants, donations and volunteers, again keeping the club debt-free and enabling funds to be funnelled back into the team.

"This would also allow us to make Gigg Lane a multi-use community asset that we can all be proud of, and hopefully a platform for unification of all football in Bury."