The Roy Barry Fan Club

Delighted to see this.

Well said Rossmcn. Parallel running for next three months. Very important that we get behind David.

Bit concerned that weather could turn game into something of a lottery.

Absolutely the right thing for Rovers to do. It will however take a lot to undo the damage of the last few days: 1. John Sim wont be going anywhere. It would take a couple of million to remove him from club and ground and that sort of money is unlikely to materialise any time soon from any credible/legitimate source. Nor can Sim afford to write it off. What about the other three directors who backed him ? Do the other two directors come back? 2. What about the football management team ? They have pushed for the signing very clearly. 3. What about Benedictus and his unfortunate comments this morning -- could no-one have stopped him from making an arse of himself before he made his statement [CEO?]? 4. What about Val -- she called the female CEO out as having misled her on Woman's Hour yesterday. Said to her face two weeks ago no signing -- and then went an did the deal with Goodwillie and nobody spoke to Val. Cant see them sitting down together any time soon. 5. Will the volunteers come back if board is still there? 6. Will the fans come back if board is still there? 7. What about present and future sponsors? Damage to the Rovers brand. 8. How much will it cost to arrive at a severance package with Goodwillie (and will he go back to Clyde??!!??): should be covered by the share of the game vs Celtic -- but what a waste of money! 9. What about the Woman's team and junior development teams? 10. Is it too much to imagine a call between John Sim and Gordon Brown? "John -- you've made a right huddy of it. Now listen up: this is what you do..... I've taken the liberty of sending you a draft statement, since the first one was such a disaster".

I've spent the morning talking with some of my friends at Raith Rovers, and without exception they are scunnered by this. This decision must have been sanctioned by Sim, the de facto owner. I can only assume that he has been too long in the Far East to have any idea of how this will be received by a substantial part of his support. I have to further say that when I had business dealings with him, I found him hard to like. We know what Val McDiarmid thinks -- but what about Gordon Brown? Indeed what about Ian Rankin. What about their female CEO. It is clear why McGlynn has done this: he sees promotion within his grasp. Well it is the job of the Chair to tell him that this is not on. I do feel for the decent members of the Raith Board -- they should follow Andy Mill and resign.

Just a wee question back Keyser: how do you know that some player (s) didn't take the same view as Digs. 😉😉😉

Decent player, decent bloke. Much missed at start of season. These chronic injuries are problematic. Wish him all the best in getting back to full fitness and finding a team.

Midfield worked: Dorrans, Pybus and Chalmers with Dow and Lawless on flanks or coming inside.

I'd love us to play with two strikers.

Well he played just about every game for Inverness in the two seasons 2017/8 and 2018/9. 96 games in total. Let's hope we see that player.

Well done Eddie. Excellent initiative. Lot of pressure on young people.

Yup. Up for this.

No worries Renegade. My view is that this note might usefully be updated once GmbH take control. I do recognise this is all a bit technical. For what it's worth it is evident to me that the GmbH interest and investment in DAFC has absolutely nothing to do with making money out of property.

Rosythpar: Bob Garmory is of course a very long standing director of Purvis group, but he's very much his own man in my experience. He's a football man too.

Renegade: in June 2020 it was announced that GmbH would be in due course, replace PUCIC as the holding company. That was extensively discussed at the time. I very much regret that it was necessary to move from the previous model because I would much prefer a fan owned model but that model was unable to generate enough investment to take the club forward. By the way, I am also a member of the PST, and have put money in via them as well as directly. So when you recall what Bob Garmory said or cite these notes, you are talking about a situation pre 2020. In due course, the holding company of dafc will become GmbH and not PUCIC as the result of a takeover. Hope that helps.

Renegade: just to mention that if you are referring to Pars United (EEP)Ltd then you don't have to be a football club director to be on its board. Indeed Patrick Burns, a chartered surveyor, is on the board and nothing to do with DAFC ltd. The other two directors are Bob Garmory and Billy Braisby who are appointed because of their property and building knowledge. If you look at the accounts, you'll see that the stadium is held in the balance sheet at cost. Not valuation. This is a much more conservative approach than used to be the case in the pre administration past. No borrowing is secured on the property, and nor will it because the ground belongs to the shareholders who paid The Bank of Scotland cash for it.

Rengade Master: Forgive me but all of this was explained in July when it was announced that GmbH was taking over a 75% shareholding in the Club. The Club explained why at the time. This was approved by the Board of of both DAFC Ltd and Pars United CIC. Two PST Board members sit on the PUCIC Board and the PST Board were themselves consulted and agreed to the matter. I should also say that this was extensively debated on this forum and others in the summer. East End Park continues to be owned by the same individuals and leased to the football club exactly as before. The football club (DAFC Ltd) has taken the long lease of the training ground and it is its asset. Its cash will pay for the refurbishment, and this will be paid for in very large measure by the new funds.

Very reasonable question Parzionale: I'll try to explain. The GmbH will eventually own 80% of the Club. This will happen anytime between now and five years. [My own belief is that this will happen sometime after international air travel normalises]. It currently owns 30%. It has taken/will take new shares in DAFC, and nobody has sold anything. So this means that if an individual owned 5% of the Club pre GmbH, then they will end up owning 1% after the current investment is converted into shares. There are about 35 individual shareholders and no-one owned more than about 7%. The PST owned 27% pre GmbH and because of what is called 'dilution' they will end up owning just over 5%. Of course (and here I speak as a personal shareholder myself) the thing to remember is that x% of a company worth nothing is nothing. A smaller percentage of a company worth something is something. Perhaps more importantly for any Pars supporter is the fact that Dunfermline Athletic gets a considerable cash injection which allows it to do the sort of thing which Rosyth Par outlines above.

The deal was announced in July but it had conditions to be fulfilled before the cash investment was made. This is not unusual in any corporate deal. The cash and a bit more is now in. The reasons for the re-structure are given in the statement. Ross is still around until the end of the season and more particularly will be parallel running with the new CEO David Cook who joins in a couple of weeks. Certainly in terms of Piracy's understandable concerns, David Cook and Thomas Meggle will be key players going forward. I don't think we need to get too hung up on existing personalities. We are in a time of transition and it may be that new people as yet unknown will arrive in the Boardroom. The GmbH is very much committed: you don't commit the sort of money that they have otherwise. Certainly they will need good local people around them, and in that I entirely agree with Piracy.

What this tells us is that GmbH have completed their investment in Dunfermline Athletic by putting in a considerable sum in cash (and a wee bit more than was contemplated in the summer). They will convert the loan note, which is interest free and unsecured, into new equity when Covid restrictions calm down. In the meanwhile they continue to have three seats on the Board. More particularly it should also be clear that they didn't like what happened to Ross McArthur in the autumn, but have decided to stick with the Pars. That is to their great credit. Quite a lot of work done in the last few months to secure this. Now we need to focus on the football team. The training ground will take care of itself and will be for the long term benefit of the Club.

In response to Keyser: Hearts certainly didn't have any supporters at the Boxing Day game, citing the difficulty of organising a ballot in time over Christmas and instead making it free to Hearts season ticket holders to view on-0line (this comes from two of my pals who are season ticket holders). It will be interesting to see what approach we take over the Hamilton game which I note was not covered by the Board statement. There are obvious sensitivities if the game is effectively closed door. I agree with Piracy and Keyser's views on all of this. As a result, I looked closely at who were in the boxes during the game, and the five which Raymie refers to were a director, the main door steward and his wife -- she looks after the ball-boys, and the two guys from the shop that I believe were sorting out Christmas on-line sales on the day. I don't have a problem with any of them being there. I think the other two in a different box were players. Generally I think some folk on daft net are working themselves into a sweat over very little, unless others were skulking that I didn't see. Rosyth Par is most certainly entitled to a prompt and courteous response as is any Pars supporter to his emails. I'd be tempted to go with a reminder. I'm actually much more interested in potential signings. In this regard do think it is a pity that getting players over from Germany/Eastern Europe for a trial is a bit more problematic than normal as i think RosythPar was spot on when he previously noted changes in the system that should allow more players to come from abroad at non-international level into Scottish teams.

A very Merry Christmas to all Pars everywhere. And a particular vote of thanks to the Admins on this site.

One option is simply to not open the stadium at all, given that it will lose us money in all probability. Getting a fair system at short notice is also tricky. Season ticket holders get Pars TV for free, and we will pick up some cash sales in addition.

G G Riva as always is well informed. I agree with his views.

It is a considerable financial hit to play games behind closed doors or even a few hundred spectators. Better financially to suspend league until end January and replay 3 missed games in March/April. Club statement just now suggests to me that SFPL considering this point this afternoon.