Dunfermline Athletic players were not paid in full last month as a result of Rangers being placed in administration.
The Fife club, who are awaiting £85,000 from ticket sales following their league match against Rangers on February 11 at East End Park, admitted yesterday that there is a cash-flow problem but are confident of making a second payment early next week. It is believed some players have only received 60% of their salaries.
"The Rangers situation has had a knock-on effect. I can confirm full wages were not paid. We have made other arrangements to get monies in and it should be all squared up on Monday," said John Yorkston, the Dunfermline chairman, who said he had written to the Scottish Premier League to clarify the club's position.
The development came on the day the club announced it had made a loss of £431,621 in the last financial year. In the accounts which revealed an overall debt of £9.4m, Yorkston, highlighted the impact of Rangers' insolvency. Turnover was up 31%, but the loss included £185,000 paid as bonuses to the staff for achieving promotion, which generated £40,000 in prize money.
"We had budgeted to make a small profit this year," said Yorkston. "That, I guess, will now be a small loss. When you look at the total loss, you can see what a big portion the money owed by Rangers is to our budget."
The accounts also carried a warning about the club's reliance on director Gavin Masterton's support. While losses fell from £1m the previous year, the auditors included an emphasis on the club's status as a going concern.
Masterton owns 100% of Charlestown Holdings Ltd, which in turn owns 94% of Dunfermline. Through that company, Masterton has lent the club more than £8m. Accounts highlighted this support and its requirement if Dunfermline are to continue trading. Yet the most recent Charlestown Holdings Ltd accounts, for the year ended May 31 2010, show a loss of £3.5m, liabilities that exceed assets held by £3.8m and a "material uncertainty" the loans could be repaid, which may cast doubt on "the group's ability to continue as a going concern".
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article