In more recent times the chairmanship of Julian Danskin threw the club into further crisis when he was convicted and imprisoned for sexually abusing teenage boys while captain of the 1st Methil Boys' Brigade.
Desperate to get Mr Danskin removed as director and chairman, the shares were sold, at a reduced price,to an unknown person in Inverkeithing, Fife. That person, after some undercover work by East Fife supporters, turned out to be a pre-school age girl by the name of Samantha Twigg. More worryingly, the mother of the young girl was the long-term partner of the major shareholder of Dumbarton FC, Neil Rankine.
Current chairman, Derrick Brown, and former business partner of Danskin, who presumably was instrumental in the selling of the shares, managed by virtue of proxy votes, to gain overall control of the club. Several longstanding directors and supporters of EFFC were removed from the board as Brown surrounded himself with cronies and family.
Recent developments such as the formation of a Supporters' Trust have been met with suspicion and contempt. Earlier this season the trust applied to purchase £10,000 worth of shares in the club. Mr Brown rejected the application, but after several weeks of protests, he agreed to sell the trust half the shares applied for, with the remaining amount subject to a vote at the forthcoming AGM.
The AGM, held in December, at extremely short notice, saw Mr Brown embark on a denunciation of the trust, (claiming that there were unspecified conditions placed by the trust on the share purchace) and its' 200 members before a vote was passed preventing the trust from purchasing the shares. The trust never got the opportunity to rebuke this misinformation.
Since the AGM the relationship between the East Fife supporters and Mr Brown has rapidly deteriorated. Boycotts of home matches has resulted in less than 200 home supporters attending each of the last four home games. A march from Leven High Street last week attracted over 150 people. Away games at Arbroath, Cowdenbeath and Queen's Park have seen Mr Brown request extra security from the respective home teams as protests have continued. One director, Dave Marshall, recently resigned from the board of directors after a failed vote of no confidence.
Mr Brown's attitude to the concerns raised has been contempteous to say the least. He has publically championed himself as a "bigger supporter" of the club than the protestors despite a recent claim that he had "never paid in to watch a game" in his life and a spell as a director of neighbouring Cowdenbeath FC to prevent him from losing his cherished position on an SFA Comittee.
Protests are expected to continue inside and outwith New Bayview for the forseeable future.

excellent. Have you sent this to the press PP or has someone else?

Twas myself GOF...

Hope it finds it's way into the hands of someone useful!

Thats terrific Angus. Covers all the main points, I hope someone runs with this.

Well done mate.

you must be reading the wrong post jilted john, this is powerstation pete, not angusfifer.

If I'd not taken 35 minutes to post this post and been a tad more sobre(sober), I would have posted excactly the same PP.

FANS UNITED WILL NEVER BE DEFEATED

(even after 20 mins of trying to typing above, 3 tomes)

You must have had some swally, Ladyfan!
You're slurring your typing!!