Pars United

Pars United pulled together the various strands of the Club's support with the combined aim to again be a force to be reckoned with in Scottish football.

Pars United was set up on 1 April 2013 by a group of Pars supporters, and with representatives of the Pars Supporters Trust (PST) and the Centenary Club present. The aims were to save the Club from liquidation, and then work towards ensuring a long term sustainable future.

Pars United is focused on bringing greater community ownership and fan governance and representation to the Club. Their efforts became crucial after the Club went into administration only ten days after they were formed.

The first steps were to raise and contribute £100,000 to the working capital of the Club, and thus allow BDO to take the appointment as administrators of the Club. Without that immediate injection of funds, BDO would almost certainly have been unable to accept the appointment. The Club would have been liquidated without completing Season 2012/13. Of that money, £6,500 came from the PST including Pars Alive, £2,500 from the Centenary Club and £1,000 from the Dunfermline Athletic Supporters Club.  At the Court of Session, on 11 April, Lord Hodge appointed Bryan Jackson and Robert Barclay, of BDO, as administrators.

Pars United's original intention had been to raise sufficient equity capital to allow it to: acquire the 93.6% of DAFC that was held by BDO; make a contribution to the creditors' fund; meet the Club's "football debts"; and provide sufficient working capital to allow the Club to operate for the foreseeable future. 

At the outset, they had no clear strategy for dealing with East End Park. They simply hoped that they would be able to reach some sort of affordable agreement with the owner or a lender. When the owner of the stadium (East End Park Ltd) went into administration on 28 May, they arranged an early meeting with KPMG, the administrators of that company, who told Pars United that they were looking to sell the stadium. Whilst, in many ways, they were excited at the prospect of being able to reunite the Club and the stadium, they were suddenly faced with having to raise considerably more money than they had first thought.

To make matters even more challenging, Pars United were then given ten days' notice of a deadline for submitting offers for both the Club and the stadium, with those offers having to be backed by proof of funding. Thankfully, the Pars supporters came up trumps and they tabled offers to both BDO and KPMG, although they were not the only party to do so.

Despite the other offers, however, Pars United Community Interest Company (PUCIC) was awarded preferred bidder status by both sets of administrators on 5 July. BDO then convened a meeting of the creditors of DAFC at which they effectively tabled Pars United's outline business plan as the means of concluding the Club's administration. The creditors approved the administrators' proposal on 30 July and Pars United then set to work on finalising the detailed conditions of the agreements with the two sets of administrators and then instructing their solicitors (DWF Biggart Baillie) to formalise the contracts.

Throughout this period Pars United kept the football management and playing staff aware of what they were doing and they continued to talk to, and meet, potential investors.

Pars United was extremely pleased to announce on 16th October that formal control of Dunfermline Athletic Football Club (DAFC) had been acquired from BDO LLP, following completion of all of the relevant legal agreements.

The Club can proceed towards coming out of administration, and papers will be provided to the Court of Session to conclude the statutory requirements.

In addition, at the same time, Pars United (EEP Limited) has acquired East End Park, from administrators KPMG. This is in line with the stated aim and strategy of Pars United to ensure that DAFC continues to play matches at our spiritual home.