John Sim is new Raith Chairman as Bill Clark stands down

The surprising news came in the same week as the first team squad returned to pre-season training.

Mr Clark’s departure sees Mr Sim taking over as Chairman for the “immediate future”, whilst Steven MacDonald will continue as Vice Chairman with David Sinton taking over the role of Club and Company Secretary.

In a further change at the club, former Kirkcaldy 4 All manager Bill Harvey has joined the club as General Manager.

Mr Clark told the Fife Free Press that his reasons for leaving were “a confidential matter between the club and myself” which Mr Sim says he wished to observe.

“Bill says he wants to keep his decision for leaving as confidential and I think we have to respect that,” he said.

Mr Sim said he was unsure how long he would remain in the role but said the club wouldn’t immediately be looking for a new Chairman.

He said his time spent in the hotseat would depend on a number of factors.

“It’s a very unusual time at the moment,” he said, “It’s very uncertain in terms of what we’re going to be allowed to do and when we’re going to be allowed to do it.”

He added that he was happy to see Mr Harvey joining the club and was confident that he would do a good job.

“Bill was available after Kirkcaldy 4 All, the town’s BID, came to end earlier this year,” he said

“I knew Bill. He’s a rugby man but that won’t stop him adding a lot of value to the football club.”

Despite Mr Clark’s resignation coming out of the blue, Mr Sim’s message to the Raith Rovers is one of positivity.

“There is absolutely no reason for concern about the financial situation or what we are going to do going forward,” he says.

“The manager has got a squad that he seems happy with based on what he said on Raith TV and in the pages of the Fife Free Press.

“We’re doing a lot at the stadium. We’ve got Scott Boyd now as the Stadium Development Manager. We’re looking at what we need to do to firstly bring it up to Championship standards and then to develop Stark’s Park as a community hub.

“Scott is doing that full time and hopefully, when we do get fans back, they will start to see changes around the stadium.”