A new beginning

Bob Garmory:- "We are at the start of a long journey, our place in Scottish football in our opinion is not in the third tier.

Bob Garmory announced to the press conference on Wednesday 16th October that the fans group Pars United had successfully completed the purchase of Dunfermline Athletic Football Club, taking them out of administration and at the same time completing the purchase of East End Park.

"The fans now own this football club and its ground and I think it is fair to say that this is an absolutely momentus occasion. It is one that many of us through the months that have preceded it this arrangement had thoughts that this might never be achieved. The fans of this club have come together and bought their club back and bought the stadium back.

"We are here today to quite simply advise you of that fact. Obviously we have given you a press release that covers the salient points but the biggest thing that we want to do is to say thank you to a few people - the hundreds of Pars fans who have contributed in whatever way they could to bring this about; people shaking buckets, sending money from all over the world.

"I know that fans on various continents will be listening for this announcement including Rhino Par down in Johannesburg. He will be listening online.

"It has been a Pars fans community that has come together to save the club. There has been an awful lot of work done but the staff during this time that has to be thanked. They have kept going doing their jobs when there has been a great deal of uncertainty about their future and they delivered the product for their customers. The Manager and the players - they have turned up, not sure whether they were going to get their wages in some cases, and have gone out on to the park and played some scintillating football. I missed the Forfar game Jim!"

"We should thank not only Jim and Neil but John Potter and Craig Dargo who have brought on the young players who won 3-0 here the other evening. We have a great future for Dunfermline Athletic Football Club within our playing staff.

"All of my colleagues in the Pars United group have worked tirelessly to achieve this. There have been individuals who have come to the party at different times and they have all done what was necessary. They have done it simply because they were Pars fans. It has not been a paying gig it has been done because we love this football club.

"I would also like to say thank you, and I know that you do not get thanked very often, to the media because you have paid attention to our story in the right way. You have come along and listened to us taking this club back into fans ownership and you have commented appropriately about that. That has helped us get our message across.

"We are at the start of a long journey, our place in Scottish football in our opinion is not in the third tier. We know if we go forward we will grow this club and we will make this club great again. We will get back to the top tier of Scottish football and we hope to see all you guys along here reporting on these events. Thank you very much indeed."