BURY Football Club is up for sale -- lock, stock and barrel! The 115-year-old outfit has been put on the market by majority shareholder Hugh Eaves and an advertisement for the business appeared in the Daily Telegraph. Tottington-born stockbroker Eaves, at the centre of a £20 million financial scandal, would be keen to recoup some of the millions he's poured into the Shakers since buying a controlling interest in the club fourteen years ago.

And though, chairman Terry Robinson declined to comment he admitted being asked to place an advert and the one in the Telegraph described the Gigg Lane set-up to a tee.

It read: "The opportunity has arisen to buy a Football League club. The club plays in a fully developed stadium which conforms in all respects with the Taylor Report.

"Within the stadium there are a range of facilities which enable the club to exploit it's full commercial potential. The land which contains the stadium and ancillary areas is freehold."

For anyone interested in picking up a Football League club at a knock-down price the Shakers would be a tempting prospect but it remains to be seen whether anyone with sufficient wealth would be interested.

With the Cemetery End of the stadium now complete, there would be no further investment required with regard to the Taylor Report and the club's turnover in the last recorded financial year was £4.5 million. Eaves owns over 90 per cent of the club's shares.

The news is sure to raise further concerns for Bury supporters who have lived with the uncertainty of the club's future since the disclosure of Eaves' dealings on the final day of the 1998-1999 season.

He was accused of 'losing' colleagues money in a series of unsuccessful ventures on the high-risk derivatives market.

It is alleged £15 to £20 million went missing from a fund he was managing on behalf of 31 people.

Many were connected to stockbroking firm Phillips & Drew where Eaves was a former finance director.