SFL Focus: Rally Round Rovers aiming to steer Raith through hard times

Like most Scottish football clubs operating amid a challenging financial environment, Raith Rovers are having to cut their cloth with more than a little precision these days. During a recent open meeting at Stark’s Park, fans were shocked when the extent of the Kirkcaldy club’s financial woes was laid bare by members of the board.

As a direct response to the meeting, Rally Round Rovers has this week been created, an initiative bringing together supporters, local businesses and community organisations with the aim of generating vital funds for the financially-stricken club.

“The true challenge from the board to all who care about the club is to increase the levels of support if we are to sustain the current football model,” said Rovers director David Wann, who will be co-ordinating the project. “The money generated through events will help to put this club on a sound financial footing.”

High-profile political support for Rally Round Rovers has been guaranteed in the shape of former Prime Minsister Gordon Brown, who, as a lifelong fan of his home-town club, has urged people to help Rovers’ cause once again. “The board has worked very hard and made a huge effort to see Raith Rovers through these difficult times. This is a campaign that will succeed with the backing of local people”, he said.

When it comes to fiscal troubles, Raith have form. The halcyon days of the mid-1990s – when the club won the League Cup, and basked for a while in the heady heights of European football when luminaries such as Bayern Munich rolled into town – were still fresh in the memory when the cash began to dry up.

A protracted and somewhat fractious takeover in 2005 eventually resulted in the Reclaim The Rovers campaign securing the club’s immediate future, and its long-suffering fans breathed a sigh of relief in the hope that the focus would finally switch from balance sheets to the field of play in the medium to longer term. However, it now appears that optimism has proved to be something of a false dawn, despite the team’s achievements in recent seasons under manager John McGlynn.

Vice-chairman Turnbull Hutton told the fans’ meeting that Rovers’ finances have been in poor shape since the takeover. The overall debt stands at £1.35m, and the club is run at a loss from one season to the next, the deficit being compensated by new investment from shareholders and board members.

Raith’s budget plans for this season have already been modified to take account of changing circumstances, which have left the club with serious financial problems. For example, the SFL – six weeks into the current campaign – announced that, following a recent court case in relation to pools money, funding from the governing body would be 30 per cent lower than last season. Despite narrowly missing out on promotion to the SPL last season, Raith are also attracting fewer fans through the turnstiles. Overall, a projected £40,000 profit for the season ahead has been replaced with a revised forecast of an £80,000 loss, a sum equalling last year’s figure. And all this against the backdrop of a close season when Rovers shed 16 players from their first-team squad as part of significant cost-cutting measures.

Hutton has also spoken of the need for Raith to sell a player to help balance the books, although this option appears unlikely to solve the problem any time soon. During the summer, an SPL club offered £5,000 for last season’s First Division player of the year, John Baird, a sum Hutton described as “an insult”.

As a means of mitigating their losses, Rovers had applied to the SFA for funding to compensate for the revenue lost due to the referees’ strike last autumn. It has been estimated that the enforced cancellation of a league fixture against Dundee in November cost the club close to £30,000, although the SFA has advised that, as it is under no contractual obligation to provide match referees, compensation is very unlikely.

Most observers agree on the need for Scottish football to restructure in a bid to address the problems currently afflicting the game. However, there is some frustration concerning an apparent lack of urgency in implementing the necessary changes. The chief executives of the SFA, SPL and SFL shared their ideas with First Division clubs at a meeting recently. Whilst it is apparent an extended top flight is not on the cards in the foreseeable future, the intention is that the leagues will be run by a single body, with an increased level of funding being passed down from the top clubs.

In the meantime, clubs like Raith Rovers will continue to do what they can to make ends meet, with the aim of attracting new investment high on the agenda.