Dunfermline Athletic were last night hopeful of keeping Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs at bay until the end of the year, despite admitting they had managed to clear only part of the first instalment of an £81,000 tax bill.
The club's immediate future remains uncertain after they had been given until yesterday to meet a £50,000 liability, with a further £31,000 due to be paid by close of business tomorrow. A statement suggested that they had made "significant contributions to arrears" in recent weeks but chairman John Yorkston has refused to divulge exactly how much of the £81,000 had been paid off.
Dunfermline have been unable to pay players' wages in full for October, having not hosted a game at East End Park for four weeks. With an extensive boardroom overhaul also blamed for cash-flow problems, club officials were forced to contact HMRC to inform them they would only be able to part-pay their arrears. A payment plan was also put to the tax body.
Yorkston said: "I don't want to add anything to the club's statement but we have spoken to HMRC and told them what we can do. It's up to them to consider, but we've got a plan that will clear our arrears by the end of December."
Dunfermline's hopes lie in attracting a bigger-than-normal attendance to Saturday's home match with Dumbarton and then in bringing in significant crowds for the forthcoming matches at East End Park against Hamilton Academical on December 15 and and Falkirk on Boxing Day. A share of the revenue from the Scottish Cup tie with Partick Thistle on December 1 and another Fife derby with Raith Rovers on January 2 are also expected to put the club on a more secure financial footing.
Fans have set up an umbrella group called Pars Alive, with the backing of Supporters Direct, to help raise money, in return for a greater say in the running of the club.
Margaret Ross, chairman of the Pars Supporters' Trust, which is behind Pars Alive, said: "I think if the club had been able to pay a substantial amount [to HMRC] they would have said so. We need to wake up and get more involved. We can't just sit back, we need to rally round."
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