Dunfermline Athletic are the latest club to come under unexpected financial pressure after the company which owns East End Park went into receivership yesterday.
Stadia Properties Ltd, who own the stadium and lease it back to the club, has had a provisional liquidator appointed to oversee its affairs.
The receivers, Ernst and Young, could sell the company's main asset, the ground on which East End Park is built, to pay off creditors. Dunfermline also owe the company (pounds) 500,000. Even so, John Yorkston, the Dunfermline chairman, was insistent last night that the club are not set to follow Livingston into administration.
He also played down fears over where they would play their games as he said they had a 125-year lease on East End Park and any sale of the land would have to honour the lease. ''It is my understanding that, whether the land is sold by the receivers or not, they will have to honour the lease to the football club,'' said Yorkston.
Stadia Properties Ltd, who made the (pounds) 500,000 loan to the East End Park club, had a provisional liquidator appointed by the court this week to deal with its affairs, along with another company, Stadia Management Ltd.
Both are subsidiaries of Stadia Investment Group Ltd which remain under the control of their directors, including Gavin Masterton, a lifelong Dunfermline supporter. The development will not affect the other businesses within SIG.
Yorkston said he was unclear when the loan would have to be repaid but it would be unusual for a company going into receivership not to call in outstanding loans to settle creditors.
Another completely separate transaction, involving a (pounds) 4.5m loan to Dunfermline, had been provided by Wood Investments, in which Yorkston and Masterton both hold directorships. Yorkston said last night that the Wood Investments money was ''nothing to do with anything'', and was not tied up in any way with the companies which had gone into receivership.
Concern has grown over the future of Dunfermline following the move into administration of Livingston, which had debts of (pounds) 10m compared with the (pounds) 7.3m posted by the Fife club back in 2002. No up-to- date figures are available for last season.
Yorkston admitted last week, that Dunfermline players had been paid by cheque for the second time this season, but said that was only because cash from the SPL was arriving a few days later. Nothing more could be read into it, he said.
Asked whether Dunfermline were facing administration and whether the (pounds) 500,000 to Stadia Properties would have to be repaid, Yorkston said: ''I am not sure when and if the money will have to be repaid. I will have to go and find out. As for facing administration, that is something we are not thinking about. Of course, we can't say what will happen in say five years' time as I may not be here, but we are not contemplating going into administration in the short term.
''If we owe money to the companies mentioned, it will only be a few months' money and all our VAT and National Insurance contributions are up to date.''
Despite Yorkston's bullish mood, Dunfermline have made it clear they are cutting costs with the result that their players have been offered greatly reduced deals to stay.
Craig Brewster is facing a dramatic reduction in salary while goalkeepers Derek Stillie and Marco Ruitenbeek have both turned down significantly reduced contract offers and seem set to leave the club.
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