Margaret Ross, the chair of the Pars Supporters' Trust, last night commended the willingness of Gavin Masterton, the former owner of Dunfermline Athletic, and the club's erstwhile chairman John Yorkston to abstain from voting as the club successfully pursued a CVA.
Creditors agreed to accept an offer of zero pence to the pound yesterday as the way was cleared for fans' consortium Pars United to take control of the club.
Their decision to abstain was a welcome one then and met with an appreciative response from Ross. "We really have to commend Gavin Masterton and John Yorkston for the way they have taken us through the CVA," she said. "They had a very big part to play in the process, and it is heartening to see that they did what they feel was best for the future of Dunfermline Athletic.
"With a deal of, effectively, no pence in the pound on the table, all of the creditors of this club have lost a lot of money, and we should not forget that. Some of them are even still helping us and offering services and utilities for nothing, and that is a wonderful thing."
So too has been the contributions from supporters which has allowed the club to meet running costs since going into administration on March 27. However, Bob Garmory, a figurehead of Pars United, has impressed a need for those donations to continue, with the new club owners having budgeted for a minimum of £500,000.
That is to help cover running costs – including a requirement to pay the fees of administrators, BDO, and football debts amounting to around £170,000 – with Garmory having stressed that fans cannot afford to suspend their fundraising efforts. "Even when a club comes out of administration it will not be 'debt free' and a number of further issues will require to be addressed by Pars United, at a cost, and as a matter of urgency," he said. "Now that there is, at last, clarity about the future ownership of club and ground we urge more supporters to step forward."
The money made form the sale of 1400 season tickets has helped, with Pars United having targeted 1700 before the league season begins. The group also plan to set up a direct debit scheme, which will allow fans to contribute a monthly sum.
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