Pars on the brink

The side relegated from the SPL always gets installed as a favourite for the First Division title the following season.

I'm not quite sure why.  Inverness managed to bounce back at the first attempt in 2009-10; they are the only team to do so since the top flight expanded to 12 clubs more than a decade ago.  So it isn't a huge surprise that Dunfermline are running a distant third, 13 points adrift of Greenock Morton with only 11 games in left.  They will not be going up this season.

At the start of the season, promotion was obviously the main objective.  Come March, survival has become the sole priority.

In truth, the club's finances have been in a rotten state for years.  In the early part of the millenium, then manager Jimmy Calderwood assembled a talented squad, with the likes of Craig Brewster and Stevie Crawford up front, Barry Nicholson in midfield and Andrius Skerla in defence - but that sort of quality doesn't come cheap.  In 2003-04, they finished fourth in the SPL and reached the Scottish Cup Final, losing to Celtic, but Calderwood left that summer for Aberdeen.  The club's debts have not been much below £10 million since then.  On the pitch, the Pars were relegated two seasons after the Tangoman's departure, and didn't return to the top table until 2011-12.

Inexplicably, on the back of a first division title decider in 2011 against local rivals Raith Rovers which packed out East End Park, chairman John Yorkston budgeted for the season in the SPL on the assumption that the club would get 5,000 fans in for every home game...only for the figure to be barely half that.  Even when, to mild embarrassment, a stand at the ground was closed to cut costs, the club continued to struggle, though manager Jim McIntyre had hardly broken the bank to improve the squad.  By the time McIntyre was sacked and replaced by Jim Jefferies, relegation was almost a formality, and Dunfermline returned to the SFL after winning only five league games all season.

The word 'clearout' doesn't do last summer justice; Jefferies was under orders to cut the squad to 22 players - at least 4 of whom were youths - at an average wage of £500/week, and no fewer than 17 first teamers departed.  Aside from veterans Stephen Jordan and Craig Dargo, the other signings were all under 22 years old.  And after losing only 1 of their opening 10 league games, it was looking rosy.

Is it coincidence that the form dipped when the cashflow stopped?  You tell me.  Certainly October was the first month that wages were late - there are reports that even now bonuses from that month haven't been paid.  The wages haven't been paid on time since then.  Finally, last week, the squad got their cash for January, but this week only 20% of February monies were paid.  Using primary school maths, that equates to a grand total of about £100 for each player - this is not Manchester United we're talking about.

Five months of late wages.  Five months of players having to try and fend off bills that need paid, to feed themselves and their families, to pay mortgages.  Dunfermline's owner, Gavin Masterton, rather insensitively claimed last week that getting 20% is better than nothing, and that at least the players had a job - I'm not convinced they'd get less money if they signed on.  Morale has finally flatlined, with five defeats in the last six games.

When questioned about their debts - apparently around £8.5 million, the club have pointed out for years that it is all to Masterton and his company.  There is no bank looking to send around the bailiffs here.  So, in theory, as Masterton would never call in the debt, there might as well be no debt.

The problem is that Masterton is running out of money.  The club's income is insufficient to pay the bills, and Masterton is no longer able to fill in the gaps.  Manager Jefferies, who's long career as a coach means he is less immediately affected by the late payments, came out this week in full support of his squad in a candid interview on the club website.  Quotes such as "the club have no money", "these players are very, very close to breaking point" and "we have to get this sorted out or there will not be a Dunfermline Football Club" do not bode well.

Talk of a £300,000 share issue to get the club to the end of the season sounds frivolous, and whilst Hearts fans were happy to throw their money into a black hole in similar circumstances earlier this year, there are fewer Dunfermline supporters and one can't help feeling they might show some more common sense than their Tynecastle counterparts.  The future is, in a word, bleak.  There's no white knight on the horizon in Fife.  At best, they muddle on till May, gut the playing squad and face the likelihood of struggling to maintain first division status next season - the obvious comparison is Clyde, who have gone from being one win from SPL promotion to being bottom of the SFL in less than 9 years; at worst, they become the second 'newco' in as many seasons to start at the bottom.  And it would be a damn sight harder for them to climb back to the top than for their predecessors.

L.