East Fife chairman heartened by supporter backing

The Fifers have been on an enforced lay-off from competitive action while the country tries to halt the spread of the deadly disease.

Like other clubs across the country, East Fife have started to count the financial cost of the unexpected cancellation of fixtures.

In a statement released on Thursday, Mr Stevenson said the East Fife board of directors have had “extensive discussions” since the outbreak of the virus started taking an effect.

The chairman says the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus has caused an “enormous amount of disruption to both the football club, and more importantly, the wider community.”

Domestic football has been shutdown until April 30 at the earliest, but many expect the closure to run well into summer.

Mr Stevenson said: “As you can imagine, the postponement of all matches will have a substantial impact of the club financially.

“At the time of the shutdown we had four home league matches to play which has resulted in loss in revenue from gate admissions and sold-out hospitality as well as losses from club shop and bar sales.

“Our final scheduled home match of this season against Falkirk would have generated income of around £20,000 on its own.

“We are also in a promising position within the league and were very much in contention for the promotion play-offs this year, matches which would have also generated a considerable amount of revenue for the club.

“Following a lot of hard-work by the board of directors over the last few years, East Fife Football Club are in a relatively safe financial position however the losses detailed above put a significant strain on club finances and we will begin to struggle should the shutdown continue into August as some within the game have indicated.

“East Fife do have Business Interruption insurance, including closure for diseases, however, when we enquired about this last week, we were advised that we would not be covered by that insurance as the stadium hadn’t been closed due to an incident of this coronavirus on the premises.

“We are currently checking whether our position changes now that we’ve entered a government mandated shutdown.”

The club office is now closed and will remain closed for the foreseeable future.

Any enquiries via email will be answered by staff working from home, though.

Supporters haven been quick to offer their backing to the club and a Just Giving page has been created with a target of £5000.

This can be accessed hat www.gofundme.com/f/supportthemightyfife