Many football fans across the country will have been dismayed at the fate that befell Bury FC in 2019. For some of us the words ‘there but for the grace of God’ will have sprung to mind – my own club, Crystal Palace, has survived two spells in administration. But a new club, Bury AFC has been formed and perhaps, one day, they will rise up through the football pyramid and take a place in the Football League. If (when!) they do and someone decides to produce a revised version of ‘Football’s Black Pioneers’ who will have the honour of being Bury AFC’s first black player?
Well, future researcher, here is your answer – Liam MacDevitt (although we think Arthur Feudjio also deserves an honourable mention as he also appeared in Bury AFC’s first match).
Rich Beedie has written about Liam (reproduced below) on the Bury AFC blog and you can read his full article here:
https://buryafc.uk/2021/01/burys-black-pioneers-part-1/
It was gratifying to see Rich say that it was reading ‘Football’s Black Pioneers’ that ‘inspired’ him to write his piece and it is equally gratifying to see the indomitable spirit of football fans who have refused to see the name of their town wiped off the football map.
Rich takes up Liam’s story:
“Born in Reading, a professional career seemed possible for Liam as he made his way through the ranks at Yeovil, but it wasn’t to be at Huish Park and saw a succession of loans as he sought a new club, including Limerick City where he first crossed paths with Tony Whitehead. Another included Stoke City where Liverpool fan Liam trained with his childhood hero, Michael Owen, but admitted the standard there was probably a little too high for him. Shortly after, Liam suffered the injury that changed everything and temporarily saw him fall out of love with football. A ruptured quad kept him out for 18 months and he returned to athletics on recovering, a sport he’d competed in nationally when at school, as ‘a stop gap’ to satisfy his competitive edge. He returned to Ireland, where his mother’s family came from, and won silver at 400m in their under-23 championships before being approached to see if he would compete for Ireland in the Rio Olympics in their 4 x 400m team. He declined, football was still his dream and via the PFA an opportunity came up to forge a new career whilst returning to playing.
Liam embarked on a degree in English Literature and Journalism, which included a scholarship that allowed access to facilities to fully recover from his injury whilst playing in the Conference South. A full-time career in journalism was a possibility at the end of his studies but the lure of full-time football was stronger, even if it was on the other side of the world. An opportunity arose at New Zealand’s Southern United where he met up with Whitehead again and the pair have been inseparable since!
New Zealand did not quite work out but the offer of a job with the BBC brought Liam – and Tony – to Manchester, and to Stalybridge Celtic. This led to a dream life professionally for Liam – talking football by day, playing at evening and weekends – and in turn to Bury.
I asked why Bury given his career, until now, had been played at a much higher level than the NWCFL. It was too good an opportunity to miss, he said, and fitted with what he wanted to do next in the game. From the first minute of training, it felt right. He and the rest of the squad know the significance of the club after everything we’ve been through and sees AFC as one of the best things to come out of the worst year ever and can’t wait for the day we can pack out the ground given the support shown so far.
Ultimately the question of racism came up with both [Ed: Rich also interviewed Steve Johnson, Bury FC’s first black player, for the same article] and despite playing in different eras suffered similar problems. For Steve it was a whole stand or a ground insulting him, with Liam’s abuse more isolated but surprisingly still quite frequent with him admitting he’s suffered upwards of 20 racist incidents against him in his relatively short time in the game, both from fans and opposition players. Both used the abuse to fire themselves up, to work harder, to score and silence the abusers but Liam feels change coming. He feels the world has woken up to racism via the Black Lives Matter campaign with people more willing to talk about it now, including his own maternal grand-parents. He’s had conversations with them this year that he has never been able to have before. He feels if he suffered abuse now, he would have the courage to walk-off with the support of his team-mates. Both feel there’s still a lack of opportunity for black people, in life in general and the game but agree they don’t want tokenism, just that the job goes to the person that deserves it regardless of colour or gender.
Steve [Steve Johnson] never ventured into coaching at the end of his playing career, it didn’t appeal to him at the time but felt the opportunities weren’t really there for him anyway. For Liam that stage of his career is someway off but sees his current television role as a chance to make a difference, to give young black people something to aspire to, given there were so few black role models on television in his youth. From a football perspective, through his PFA role, he has seen initiatives launched recently that will hopefully see a higher ratio of black players become coaches and managers, giving those that want it the chance they deserve and inspire future generations because as Liam puts it ‘you can’t be what you can’t see’.”
We wish Bury AFC and Liam the best and will follow their progress with interest.