Dunfermline Athletic granted adminstration order

Lord Hodge granted the order at the Court of Session this afternoon, and will sit again on April 11 to decide on whether to grant full administration to the troubled club.

The judge was told by Dunfermline’s legal team that majority shareholder Gavin Masterton is willing to sell his stake in the club, and that a buyer is waiting.

HMRC did not lodge a winding-up order at court, as had been feared.

Dunfermline’s First Division fixture at home to Falkirk tonight will go ahead as scheduled.

Speaking yesterday, Jim Leishman, club legend and face of the steering group trying to save the club, said that administration was the club’s only option.

Leishman said: “It was either liquidation,where you’re done and dusted and you’ve nothing, or what we’ve done.

“We’re giving it a chance. It’s good news. I wouldn’t say we’re saved – there’s a lot of hard work to be done.

“But we’ve underwritten the administrator and hopefully now he can do his job and we can look for the long-term sustainability of Dunfermline.

“The people who have underwritten the administrator are people who care about Dunfermline and I’m really proud of them.

“He [the administrator] accepted that and he’s away speaking to different people that he needs to speak to. I would think that one of them would be HMRC.

“It’s not the steering group [who are paying the administrator].

“They’ve done fantastic for three weeks. This is some of the steering group and some other people that weren’t involved in the steering group. Hopefully we can get people together now and find a way forward.”