Just found out that Forfar,with the financial gains they made from sharing a league campaign with Sevco,managed to pay off their outstanding debts,build a new facility for their matchday coporate service and finance improved deals for their playing staff new and old.They are now challenging for the 1st div title.
Makes it all the more galling to see what has been squandered down at Bayview.

Balingry rovers have folded.

Ah, but Forfar never had any postponed games to deal with. Oh wait, they had the most home games postponed for 2 seasons running before they installed a plastic pitch. Must be the massive crowds they get up there ...... nope, not that. What could it be?

I would call the situation at Bayview a farce, but then that would mean it was funny, which it is not.

No confidence whatsoever in the ability of the Gang of Four to continue running East Fife whilst servicing the debt and repaying Twigg/Johnston.

Sad sad sad

Who could service the debt better? Who would you have confidence in doing it?

I think more bemusing issue is how we accumulated so much debt, what did we spend all that money on... or how did we lose it all, and why?

I think the issue is who can be trusted to clear the debt, while running the club, don't you?

I ask you, who do ordinary people distrust most in society? Would it possibly be estate agents, bankers, financial advisors and the like, by any chance? Are these not the type of people who have already been touted as being the saviours of our club by way of the EFSS and probably won't be investing much (if any), of their own money into East Fife?
Would you not be better relying on people who have parted with substantial sums of their own hard-earned cash (to coin a well used AFTN phrase) and have most to lose?

Only if you were trying to brush the previous question under the carpet, I suppose.

Otherwise, I'd think both questions are equally pertinent.

Were the four board members all present and actively involved in running the club whilst we (somehow) managed to lose/spend a massive amount of money and have absolutely nothing to show for it?

If so, can they be trusted to service the debt? I'm not so sure.

I ask the question again - Who can be trusted to service the debt? Who would you have confidence in doing it?

Well and truly shafted...

And who has the ability to service the debt? The answer to all three questions is not the present board.

Four old age pensioners who have plenty time but not much else?

Anne Budge comments on running a football club:

"There is a fundamental business rule that says you shouldn't be spending more than you bring in - it's not rocket science. If you do that, you're going to end up with debts. Borrowing money for a particular capital programme you can understand, but running up debts that are prevalent in football is beyond my understanding really"

Nobody then?

So who is going to service the debt? It sounds like you might be able to do it, being an Anne Budge follower?

You're embarrassing yourself demanding the answer to a question that has been answered but refusing to answer any of the questions asked of you.

Who IS GOING to service the debt? We have a board of four who claim to be in the process of a takeover, though with the owners previous for staging false takeovers on more than one occasion you might forgive supporters for not swallowing it this time. So are they going to service the debt? I hope so, but seeing as they were all present when we seemed to lose £150,000 over a couple of postponed matches when clubs the same size as us were making tremendous profits, again you will have to forgive supporters for not having too much faith.

Who CAN service the debt? That all really depends on how the debt occurred, we've lost a large amount of money and nobody seems able or willing to say how, or why. Are we still losing all this money? If not what changed?

Who WILL service the debt? Well we don't have any choice in that one it seems. The owners and board say there is a takeover and that our board will try to fix things in the long run. Sadly that probably means having even less quality on the park than we do at present (I know, that's hard to believe) and pretty much no chance of attracting new and young fans who will have little interest in watching us slog it out for 8th place with East Stirling. We're also losing old fans who have followed the club for years. So it really depends on what happens first, whether we clear the debt or our crowds fall below 300, if it's the latter I don't think the club will have a long term future sadly.

Hopefully Mr Interested will be willing to join in this discussion and comment on some of these points but I expect he'll just repeat his question.

What questions were asked of me prior to your latest post may I ask?

"Were the four board members all present and actively involved in running the club whilst we (somehow) managed to lose/spend a massive amount of money and have absolutely nothing to show for it? "

What has that got to do with my question? I am not saying I am for or against anybody, I am simply asking the posters who have said they have no confidence in the current board members to do it, so I am asking who will or can do it? The reason I am asking is because we have no other bidders for the club and we are only seeing posts condemning the current directors, but absolutely nothing is being given as an alternative to their bid. What is the point of all these posts about the directors, when there has been zero alternatives put forward?

So the EFSS weren't planning a bid then? I must have dreamt that.

And why are you ignoring all the points I raised in my previous reply to you where I'm just genuinely trying to find out why we got in to so much debt, because I believe that is crucial to actually getting back out of debt.

Well assuming there is no other bid and we have to make do with what we have, I presume the board will provide the requisite leadership and unveil their plans for the club shortly? I mean that's what new bosses to a business do isn't it?

This.

Thank christ someone knows the score. East Fife blew hundreds of thousands of profit into hundred of thousands of debt because of a few postponements. Aye right.

Hows about telling us where the money really went before fans start coming to a conclusion that the money was pocketed or siphoned off or something sinister?

To think you want the fans to back a bid from these guys who helped put our club on the brink?

"It nevertheless seems that a significant loss is anticipated for 2014 despite games V Rangers and Dunfermline After the meeting the EFSS checked its shareholder copy of the accounts for the previous few seasons.
2013 Loss of £26,000 despite getting £140,000 from the tie at Ibrox
2012 Loss of £13,000 despite £40,000+ from tie at Pittodrie
2011 Loss of £38,000
2010 Loss of £125,000"

Your question posed about who else can run the club or service debt is stinking. It's like your babysitter turning out to be a sex offender and the sex offender saying well who else are you going to get to look after your bairn, I'm the only person available?

Not ignoring anything. There is no EFSS bid so far and there might not even be one. I dreamt about buying the club myself, but it was only just that - a dream! So keep on dreaming as long as you like and when your dream comes true, you can then argue against the directors bid. Until then, you are gaining nothing by making accusations, because there is nothing so far to argue for, as a better option eg;- an EFSS bid.

Then give an answer.

What "accusations" have I made? Look through my posts on this thread and you won't see a single one.
I'm ASKING
1. How we got into heavy debt
2. Why we got in to heavy debt
3. If what caused us to get into heavy debt is still an issue (are we losing a lot of money on something?)

I'm asking this because if we all knew what was such a huge financial drain on the club maybe some of us would be in a position to help. Certainly with all the current secrecy it's hard to offer any form of help when we're not allowed to know what the problem was.

As for your comments on the EFSS bid, that's just crass technicalities to avoid and deflect away from answering any questions. When does a bid become a bid? EFSS were in the process of putting one together, from as far as I can see, and a deal was supposedly done between the owners and the board.

But if we're to accept that there won't be any other bids, AND this is a legitimate takeover, then the first step to moving forward would be for the club to admit what went so badly wrong financially these past few years. I'm sure once everyone is fully in the picture they'd feel much more comfortable with putting their hands in their pockets to try and help out.

Mmmm. How would things play out if the Gang of Four withdrew their bid and resigned.

Given that there seems to be no backing for them from the support, perhaps this would be a sensible thing to consider.

A cannot understand why the 2 parties plus s.c,E F ladies just cannot get round a table and put a joint bid in to buy the club.The longer this is taken,the worse its going to get.The land around Bayview is making f'all.IF they can sort out there differences ,there might be a chance to get money in buy selling/renting out this land.Any other club in Scotland even Britain would have the board/supporters pulling together to get there club out the mess,however at our club........

Rest of the football clubs don't have aftn supporting them.

Yes your maybe right,there are a few on here that have spat there dummies out because the trust are not involved in this takeover.HOWEVER,every single fan deserves to know where the money we had has gone, to leave us on the brink.It won't be that if the worse senareo happens.They'l be a hue un cry.Thats levenmouth lost its professional football club now,along with everything else the area has lost through the years.Christ you have a local m.p who goes to games.You have a formar F.M who has been invoved with our club.You even have a former P.M that ,although supports Raith,cold give advice if asked.As a normal supporter who just wants to watch football on a Saturday,i find all this SAD AS FUCK!!!!!!!!!!Oh and Martin,maybe you should spend an hour or so on other football supporters forum.Although aftn is quite hardcore,you will find that there supporters(some anyway) are no different from ours.HAVE A NICE DAY!!

Martin - are you suggesting that the reason that the board and supporters are not pulling together is because of AFTN?

When Lee Murray was in charge there seemed to be a very healthy relationship between the board and the support - AFTN was active then was it not?

One thing that certainly is putting a wedge between the support and the board are the posts of one of the board members. But this wedge is there because of the make up of that particular board member, not AFTN. I'll bet he is equally divisive in person, in letter and on the telephone as he is when he posts here. It is his views and mindset that are the problem - not the medium in which they are expressed.

Do you think if AFTN was not here that somehow the support would be content with the on-field and off-field situation that the club is in? My recollection of the pre-AFTN Gavin Murray era suggests not.

Martin, you've held this opinion on AFTN for a number of years......and yet you keep coming back....

Let's be honest, AFTN is not the problem. I too would like to see the board pulling in the same direction as the support. It appears that the Gang Of Four took the lead, but the support did not follow. Will they now continue down that path or seek a new unified approach to tacking East Fife's problems .....time will tell.

Equally, other football clubs don't have the East Fife board holding them back.

I've won a holiday to Trinidad. Would have preferred shares in my fife, but the old man team hit the bull first

Clearly someone has pocketed the cash! Find it ridiculous that a director is trying to cover things up by saying the cash raised covered the costs of a few postponements. Nevermind, at least we have a board who are happy to publicly slate fans and fuck about in lower leagues for many more years. I've walked away, and many more will follow. I sincerely hope the supporters can launch a bid and save the club, until then I won't be back.

I smell sad John on this thread.

Hiya John/Deary me/Ringo/Jocky

Staying on the Bullseye theme,remember the wee catchphrase,
"stay out of the black and in the red,nothing in this game for two in a bed".


The club have certainly taken the first part of that a bit too literally.

Gave loads ££££ to £ivin£ston.

The fact that the Ringo guy has gone quiet on the above says everything. For goodness sake if he can't defend this, I'm sorry, they must be crooks. What they've done to our club and helping hide Rankine is heartbreaking.

So Interested? what happened to the money? We are all interested.

Actually, East Fife don't have AFTN supporting them either Martin. It's just a constant whinge fest on this forum most of the time.

Plenty to whinge about, I am sure you will agree. It's not even about disappointment any more. Just having a functional club to support would make a difference. Is that too much to ask in return for commitment?

Bump. This can't be brushed under the carpet. This is a very serious question.