Is there to be an AGM for EFFC this year? I seem to remember it was always held around this time but there has been no announcement and I suspect there will not be one because there are too many questions to be asked and which will be deflected as I expect will be the case at the trust meeting. Is it a legal requiremnt for private companies as for public limited companies?

Let's face it the directors' bid is ajoke as anyone expected to donate to it would be mad without the information that we have all been asking. Say the trust and fans do not suport it is there any prospect the directors could go ahead? I for one have said from the beginning I would not support it even if there was more transparency and the trust have already indicated that their working group will also turn it down so why all this faffing about?

To tell the truth I have lost patience with the club, the directors, the trust and the team. Although the present situation must have some effect on the team's performance. We are playing into Rankine's hands. While a "viable" bid is on the table he has some defence for the SFA in that Twiggs are trying to sell.

My fear is that in the long run the club will go bust and the ground will be sold which is what Rankine has wanted all along.

Annual General Meeting is scheduled for Monday 5th January 2015 at 7.00pm.

The Accounts for the year to 31 May 2014 show a loss of £142,174.
Relevant factors contributing to these losses are:
Matchday and admin costs involved in the Rangers and Dunfermline games.
Loss of SFA youth funding with the lost funds being made good by the club.
Playing staff costs being greater than budgeted.
Worryingly the club had current assets of £36,625 and current liabilities of £128,809.ie an immediate deficit of £92,184 to meet its current debts.
The BOD have an action plan in place to address this shortfall.
A further worry is that the club anticipates a further loss for the current year.

As an aside , 34 supporters paid the full charge of £13 today.


.

I don't think it should be considered "an aside".

I think it should be a key component of the Gang of Four's strategy to turn the club around? What are they going to do to entice former customers back to the club?

Never thought I'd hear that ; Board of Directors and Action Plan in the same sentence.
Is this action plan selling the ground around Bayview to Neil Rankine ?
Locals in a pub after last weeks game said East Fife had two deals on the go with Neil Rankine,
one buying the shares and the second selling him some land.

Could just be local gossip, Anyone know. If there is any truth in it ?

Does the 36k of assets include the stadium and the surrounding ground. Who are we due all this money to is it to the tax man or local business. What a horrendous state of affairs.

Found it really strange at yesterdays game.A business is struggling for funds yet they have a free raffle and give away aload of free prizes.

The prize draw didn't really cost anything though.

Like many other long standing fans, there is a lack of trust in the present Board, possibly due to lack of transparency and communication with fans over a number of years. I have absolutely no doubt that they want the same for the Club as the fans do. I have also no doubt that they have put a fair amount of their personal wealth and a great deal of time into running the Club. However the business nous in attracting sponsors etc over the years has been lacking.
The present deal on the table with Rankine/ / Twigg / Johnston - is it what it seems ? Does anyone honestly believe that the 150k from the Rangers game two seasons ago was swallowed up by 4 postponed games ? If that was the case we will go out of business if we have a similar scenario over the winter.
I have a theory which may be miles off the mark, but there again may have more than an element of truth in it.
The Board had a bid of 380k accepted in principle by the majority shareholders. The Board are putting up 100k of their own money and if they are, fair play to them. However I believe that Rankine took 100k from the Rangers money and he will deduct that amount from the due 380k but it has been decided that the four Directors will look good and get fans onside by saying they are putting in 25k each. As a result Rankine pays nothing, Directors pay nothing but get 25k of shares each and it's a paper exercise. Secondly, at the recent meeting with the fans, the Board did not really answer the question about if the deal went ahead, would Rankine have no hold over the Club in terms of the running of the Club and surrounding land. Based on this, if the rumour mentioned above about Rankine buying the surrounding land for 80k is true, then again he is not putting the money into the Club but just deducting it from the deal offered taking it down from 280k to 200k. This means Rankine is still due to receive in cash more than he paid for Danskins shares, has an area of land he can sell in the future and has already had a 'dividend' on his shares to the tune of 100k
The Directors spoke about the holding company then selling 39/40 blocks of 5k worth of shares to fans and local groups. This would tie in with the shares the still available.
I may be miles from the truth, but I suspect I may not be far away.

For goodness sake Warren Buffet, give the board a little credit for doing something for long suffering supporters and to maybe attract some people who are not regular attenders. As previous post says, it would not have cost a great deal.

Surely, the most farcical thing to come out of these financial figures, is the value the Twigg consortium believe East Fife football club to be worth. Now you don't have to be a financial genius from the city of London to understand that a business haemorrhaging customers, with no business plan and very few assets has to decrease in share value. However Samantha believes that the value of East Fife should increase. If you took these financial figures and business model to an independent financial advisor you would be laughed out his office. Now I don't for one minute believe the gang of 4 are that stupid to agree with the value of the club. So you can only conclude that some deal is being struck. This is becoming a mini version of Sevco, money disappearing from the club and mystery men behind the scenes. Not to mention the fans walking away. I am afraid the club I love is heading for disaster.

I will tell you what is amazing 18 posts
on this thread,yet we won 3.0 yesterday
and only 3 posts on that thread.

Call yourself supporters pathetic

What you think the 10 or so whingers on
here are the vast majority of the support
what a load o pish.

And don't try and say there are many more
on here than that.

Guys like you and others on this thread need
to waken up get back into following the
team you claim to follow and stop stirring
trouble.

Even though the crowd was down yesterday
we were still 2nd largest crowd in league and
that was behind Arbroath.

Still not good though we need guys and girls
through the turnstyles and dig us out the hole
we are in it's that simple.

Be angry,but be an angry supporter and keep
your club running

I repeat, THEY put all their details in the public domain. It's not rocket science finding things on the internet.
The despicable thing here is the death of East Fife.

Moderators! why are you not moderating?
As others have stated, AFTN is dead.Long live AFTN!.
We are looking at the potential death of the club after an existence of 112 years.
The fans want to voice their concerns.
The idiots have taken over.

Hi,

I don't agree that AFTN is an embarrassment of a site but I do think the quality of the posts, and frankly some of the contributors, on the forum - which is only one part of the site - has been deteriorating significantly and has now reached an all-time low.

AFTN Towers is not oblivious to this and I'm sure GoF won't mind me saying that this is something he is looking at very carefully as we speak.

We are on it and, rahter than get bogged down in debates on individual posts right now, I think a more general discussion needs to take priority.

Please bear with us meantime.

Thanks

Heard that Ineos are looking to buy site of old power station for the land base of the underground coal gas planned under the forth. Is that why rankine wants land ? Would we not get a better price for land if put up for sale on the open market ?
Each day I worry more for the future of our club . Cannot see that changing after Monday night

Why don't AFTN introduce a pay to use AFTN? That would stop at a stroke the vast majority of crap that the forum is infested with, stone dead. That would of coarse mean every body would have to be identifyed due to registering for payment and if the AFTN owner(s) have the future of East Fife at heart, then a lot of unneccessary grief would surely dissappear and hopefully meaningful and positive discussions can be the norm. It would also let us know just how many people are actually posting negatively or positively and may give a clearer picture of how many supporters are even interested in the argument, which I think would be a massive majority. I would guess that the vast majority of the punters who go to Bayview to support the team, are not interested one bit in who owns the cub, as long as it survives.
I know that will never happen, because nobody would pay, so the only other way to controll the infestations is to make sure every body needs to register before they can post on the site. What ever GoF & co decide, the multiple username system AFTN that exists now, has to change.

Was it really only 18 months ago that Messrs McNeil and Murray took up stewardship of the club and won us all over with tales of new ownership,potential championship status, togoan internationals,and full-time players.
Latterly we bought into Crowdfunding and talks of a 3D Pitch.
What the club did achieve was relegation with the worst set of players I have ever witnessed, untried managers, and a crippling loss of £142,174 putting the very existence of the club in jeopardy.
Unfortunately the 2 gentlemen in question have now resigned from the Board of Directors and consequently are not answerable to the shareholders for their actions.
There must be a question mark aimed at the present board and also the now resigned trust representative of how this was allowed to happen.

For the current season , you will find that contracts were drawn up and agreed by the former Chairman which have resulted in player wages between 2 and 3 times greater than the teams which are currently vying for promotion.
Thank you former Chairman!!

After tonights AGM , I would like a statement to be made by the BOD on the current financial plight of the club and what the immediate future holds for the club.
I am of the view that the club will only prosper with there being a concerted united front of Board, Trust ,fans , sponsors ,and the Levenmouth public in general to acquire the shares from Rankine/Johnston/Twigg and to get the club out of this financial mess and future prosperity.
The Trust AGM is to be held on Thursday evening. Lets hope that off-field matters are a bit clearer after the EF AGM.
Finally thank you Mr McNeill and Mr Murray for your efforts!!!

Are AGMs open to the public or do you need to have a shareholding etc?

Great post Sammy.The board ov directors let Murray un his cronies have a free hand in the board room,and sat back and let them get on with it.They fooled,not just them ,but also OUR supporters.Christ all you got on here was "Oh well done Lee.Oh well said Lee.Oh lee,your such a breath off fresh air.Oh Lee ,your so transparent."SEND MI THE FUCKIN SICK BUCKET!!!!!!!!!!!
And where are they now,eh.They bailed out knowing the shit was about ti hit the fan.Everyone on here knew our club was losing money for along time,however what DID happen to the 100k.Was it used for signing players under Durie,Chisume or Brown??.Hardly.
Did Rankin use it to help bail out Livi???big chance.
Did Murray use it to try to get us into the championship,hoping to get the cash back once we were in there.???possible.
Thing is,we might never no,which I think is a fuckin disgrace!!!!
Oh and lunghammers,Murray gave us they wee flags the laddies wave when we score a goal.It was used about 15, or so times last season.
"CHRIST IF YE DIDN'Y LAUGH,YID GREET!!!!!!!!!!!',so lets here it one last time.
'OHHHHH WELL DONE LEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!'

Lee Murray and Brian McNeil have a lot to answer for that's for sure. What a complete disaster their short reign was, that's for sure.

Any feedback on how things went last night?

Come back Sid, all is forgiven.

One thing I'm curious about is to whom the debts are owed.

10K increase in merchandise is this the cost of our kit being manufactured by under armour. 60k for scaffolding thank the lord the maniacs have left the building. Some un believable decisions by the previous board.

WHAT AN ABSOLUTE SHAMBLES OF A CLUB/BOARD WE HAVE AT THE MOMENT.

Unfortunately there is a distinct lack of a LEADER at the club.
Someone who is strong enough to galvanise all interested parties be it Trust, Supporters Club, Shareholders ,Fans, Sponsors,and the wider community to finally rid itself of the cancer/malaise which has afflicted the club for the past few years.

UNLESS SOMEON TAKES RESPONSIBILITY ,THE CLUB WILL DIE.WHO CAN WE BLAME THEN?
I have absolutely no doubt that the current BOD WILL get the debt under control, but UNFORTUNATELY none of them has the charisma ,organisation skills-call it what you like, to unify ALL interested parties.

I attended the Meeting called by the Directors in early December , along withh approx.80 other supporters and can assure you that there was no direct request for financial support from those attending. There WAS a flippant remark from Jim Stevenson that anyone who gave £25000 could become a Director.
Jim , can you not see that for the immediate future of the club,you MUST get the supporters / community on board to inject WORKING CAPITAL into the club.
The club needs this immediate cash injection to part pay off its creditors.
eg Season Ticket in advance for lifetime,5 years; Lunch Club -whatever suggestions you come up with.
Thereafter ONLY a fan bid , and that includes the BOD, will succeed.

JIM STEVENSON,as Chairman of EFFC you MUST tell us what you want.

I'll be putting £0 pounds into East Fife unless the board opens up, answers the questions asked, withdraws their "takeover" and looks to work with the supporter's bid.

Zero, zip, he-haw.

Do I want to see the club die? Of course not.

But parting with any money under the current circumstances is not going to make things any better. I'd be seeing the club die AND throwing my money away. No Thanks.

Terracing was used twice to accommodate The Rangers fans, and a third time for Dunfermline game, which wasn't required as crowd could have easily fitted into the stand.
It is incredible to believe that the cost of terracing exceeded income, and The Rangers matches actually lost the club money.
It would be interesting to find out how much Peterhead paid for their temporary terracing, but I would bet it is a fraction of £60k. Hope that there hasn't been any creative accounting or hired from Rankine Scaffolding Ltd.

Dumbarton decided against putting up similar temporary standing because they calculated it still wouldn't be worth it. They have 2 visits each from Hibs, Hearts, and Rangers this season. If they can't make that work, god knows how we thought we could with only Rangers and Dunfermline.

We spent 60K for the scaffold?

Here's what we got:
http://willievass.photoshelter.com/gallery-image/261013-East-Fife-v-Rangers/G00003ZmJ_kxO8es/I00002TfaG1kNe8M/C00003cSEmSnc7rM

The guys on the top tier didn't even get a full safety rail.
http://willievass.photoshelter.com/gallery-image/261013-East-Fife-v-Rangers/G00003ZmJ_kxO8es/I0000VHwqiMgzu5w/C00003cSEmSnc7rM

?....why are you so obsessed with Estate Agents?

This thread is a good reminder of why I stopped supporting East Fife. Most people would go to watch a football match to support their team but instead EF fans all bicker with each other, shout abuse at the players and manager and just sit there like a sack of potatoes whilst doing so. Where is the encouragement, a little sing song perhaps?

Bayview is dead, probably because the majority of the supporters are almost dead too. A sign of the times and a clear metaphor for the 'community'.

Yes, the players are supposed to be professionals, but it's difficult to enter a hostile environment and put in a good performance week in week out when no one seems to appreciate it.

There is no point in blaming the board, the previous board, the players, the previous players or the players before that. The only thing that is constant since I watched EF is the supporters. Bar one good season the atmosphere has always been crap and this is purely down to the supporters.

The club is dead and has been for a long time now. It's a shame, but I blame the fans for driving it into the ground. I do sincerely hope that it can be revived and improving the atmosphere inside the stadium regardless of the results or off-field troubles is the only way to improve circumstances.

Maybe if the club kept the board but sacked the fans, that might just work.
Something to consider.
Perhaps with the dwindling attendenders (I count myself in that), the board will be free of those pesky fans soon enough.

Tried and failed so gave up. That's the spirit eh? It doesn't matter how many times people say it but the fans can't take any sort of criticism and respond constructively. It's been said by previous players, managers and away fans that the atmosphere is dire. You can hear a pin drop. How will this attract good players? How? How? Idiot. Ignorance is bliss.

The proposed supporters take over will fail because people in levenmouth and don't have the capital or acumen to do it professionally and competently and the vast majority won't be stupid enough to waste money in a failing club unless other revenue streams are properly explored such as 3G pitches or a sports complex.

Regardless of rankine/twigg issue, the supporters trust should be doing more to encourage people into the stadium on match days even if that doesn't increase the gate receipts in the short term but with a view to increasing attendance in the longer term. There is no engagement with the wider community at all, if there is then things may improve financially and the general atmosphere may be more inviting. When I was young there were incentives to get young people to bayview such as giving tickets for free to primary school kids with reduced adult fees. Could this not be explored again? The more people in the stadium the more chance ridiculous insults from retarded 'fans' would be drowned out and reduce the negative effect this has on player confidence. Might sell more pies too.

I can sell raffle tickets 💩

Early in the season albion rovers a club which sit aboves us in the league have benefit from pay what you can sheme with season tickets and one off games and has worked increasing their attendance? If we can't fill the ground we should be looking at pay what you can sheme too because other clubs like Inverness in the premier league are doing it so why can't east fife do the same to promote football and attendance at bayview?
The football hasn't been that exicting so we would all benefit in going to see our team this season to see if it works who knows we could fill 1,000 seats than have 500 average crowd.
In question how many season tickets were sold this season than last season because of the teams we faced last season?

Nor possibly did you. I believe the terracing fans paid less than £15 so that would make your calculation rather irrelevant. Should you however plan a career change could i point you in the direction of pension's administrator i would surely benefit from your accounting prowess.

So if the combined attendance on the temperature terracing for the two Rangers games was 4720, all paying £16 pound then the Club made £75,520 in terracing gate money.

If the terracing cost £60,000 then that's £15,520 the Club made in profit if the Police costs were £15,000 (I'm assuming that woûld be for the entire season and not just the two circus shows) then not only did it pay for itself it paid for another outgoing expense the Club would have to have forked out for!

And that's not counting any Brucey-Bonus money they got for opening it for the Pars game!

Don't see the issue here, looks like a bit of a smokescreen.

Deceive, Inveigle and Obfuscate is the name of the game here I think.

18 and16 gives an average of 15 You're probably a banker so you must be clever. I will just go and learn to count.

^^^^^

and the fans want to run the club

2014 A significant loss is anticipated for 2014 despite games V Rangers and Dunfermline
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

so perhaps not all lee murray's fault then.

Certainly Lee Murray must hold a large amount of responsibility for the situation the club is now in. The accounts clearly show that last season's financial performance was particularly woeful.

However the other directors (aka 'gang of four') also are accountable as they didn't ask enough questions and allowed the mess to develop.

Bert
I said the same as you last week ,ie a lack of a charismatic leader to take control of the situation the club finds itself in.
For my troubles , I was told I was an ARROGANT COCK.

Arrogant - No. Cock- Perhaps!!more than reasonable

By the way, Bert, you were a more than reasonable keeper in your prime!!!!!1

No-one has asked me. I'm not interested. Just a fan who works hard and used to enjoy going to the football.
Not interested in investing or joining the trust or whatever.
Just an ordinary bloke so I am.
That said I'm not forking out any more cash on watching that pish.

Catch 22 really.

Past caring to be honest. Me and a good few hundred others.

Jeek,
It's a pity you are past caring and that presumably this is your last post.
I have followed your contribution with interest and was impressed that on three different threads within a week your total contribution has been the word "flounce".
I am not sure if you are using it as a noun or a verb but I think what is more important is that if you have mastered a word why let it go to waste ?

Jeek, I am delighted. Things are maybe black but with your positivity.......

Old enough to die in my sleep.

Ha!

A round of applause is due go the directors for at last coming up with a strategy to follow.
1. Blame Lee Murray for everything, and rely on short memories to overlook the heavy losses of the previous four years.
2. Ignore all questioning about what happened to the £140000 from the Rangers cup tie.
3. Sit back while a couple of Observers (no connection, obviously) take turns to attack the Trust, who threaten the status quo.

The most recent attack says the Trust are no further forward since their formation. From where I am sitting, the Trust are closer than ever to gaining control. They have regularly invested in shares, putting funds raised into EFFC. They have clearly stated that they believe the directors' bid is over-priced and would create further problems. And they have asked the directors to reconsider. Members and supporters have been kept updated. Meetings have been held. Financial advisers have been hired. There is no overnight solution but the groundwork is in place. This is good work with a clear vision, in a murky, messy situation. More power to them.

I think I am right that the shares which have already purchased by the Trust have been at a price of both £4 and £4.50.

Since the Due Diligence process , the Trust have been advised that because of the club's debt , the purchase price of any offer should not be at £4.50 per share.
No mention -as far as I know-has been made by the Trust on how they would handle the clubs debt if they were the successful buyer.

Meanwhile the current BOD have agreed to purchase shares from Rankine at £4.50 and to sell land outwith the stadium for a reputed £80,000 ,the proceeds of which presumably will go towards the club's debt. The BOD have also stated that they are tackling the inherited debt.The BOD have also given loans to the club to hopefully ensure that the club survives this season.
The BOD would then try to sell their shareholding in £5000 tranches.

Irrespective of your viewpoint,the decision making process undertaken by the BOD is certainly more streamlined and their vision for the future of the club seems all-embracing. The BOD see the situation as getting rid of Rankine ASAP.
The Trust seems bound by procedures in arriving at decisions and do not seem to have tackled the debt question.
Perhaps understandable ,given the main reasons for the Trust having been set up ie boost both supporter shareholding , and community involvement.
In other words the Trust , I feel , need to make a statement on exactly where they are.
At the moment I feel that fans are being left in limbo, with neither side giving advice on how we can help.

Who is in charge of the Trust?
Who is in charge of the EFSS?

....and how is the "takeover" progressing?

Has a holding company been set up ? No.

Have the gang of four actually parted with 25K each to invest in this holding company? No

Has anyone been offered the "5k a pop investment" opportunity to fund the Gang of Four's takeover? No.

Did the heads of terms and takeover press release get the owner off the hook with the SFA... HELL NO.

If the Trust paid anywhere near 400 grand for the club I'd be disgusted with them throwing fans money away.