The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Fifers in no hurry to splash cup match cash
EAST FIFE chairman Sid Collumbine has insisted there will be no lavish spending in the wake of their League Cup windfall at Ibrox in midweek.
Collumbine hopes to use the funds raised from Tuesday night’s cup tie with Rangers wisely in the coming months but stopped short of making any grandiose promises.
Early estimates suggest East Fife will secure at least £125,000 from the game, after a crowd of over 38,000 turned up to watch Rangers’ first competitive home fixture since being turfed out of the SPL.
The finer details of exactly what East Fife can expect still have to be worked out following expenses, but Collumbine hopes to use the cash to steady the ship and help take the Methil club on a forward course.
“Basically we hope to use the money to keep the club in control of expansion,” he told Courier Sport.
“There’s nothing specific at this stage and the costs of running the club are going up and up all the time, but what it does do is help secure the future of the club for the next two years.
“There’s no mad rush to go out spending money improving this and improving that, but we have the financial security of having this in the background.
“The manager will have a bit of leeway to sign one or two players and we’re working on plans with the stadium all the time, but it’s got to be right for East Fife.
“We will not go into massive debt to increase the size of a stadium for a crowd we don’t have.
“We want a covered enclosure, a standing area which could take seats at a later stage, but we always have to look to stability.”
Collumbine had feared a relatively low turnout after the game was switched from a weekend to midweek, but the determination of the Ibrox faithful to rally round their club for the first home fixture significantly boosted gate receipts.
“We were very fortunate because I don’t think there will be crowds like that at Ibrox all season, unless they get SPL teams in the cups,” he continued.
“It was a statement of defiance from Rangers, they wanted to show they are still a big club and we benefited from that.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that Rangers will win the league but who else could sign players in one day costing several thousand pounds a week each?
“That sort of weekly wage would keep a club like East Fife going for two months.
“It will be a hard life for teams in theThird Division they’ll gain in their home games as far as finance is concerned because most of them will get sell-out crowds when Rangers come to town but winning the league is out of the question.”
Despite the 4-0 scoreline, Collumbine said the club enjoyed their experience on Tuesday night, although it was soured slightly after the final whistle.
“Rangers treated us very, very well and we can’t complain apart from the fact that our players didn’t get any food after the game,” he explained.
“If a club comes to East Fife they get pasta and all the rest of it but we were told there was none left so we had to buy food for players on the way home.
“Whether it was a mistake or what, I don’t know, but I thought it was a disgrace.”
Meanwhile, it has emerged that a problem with Collin Samuel’s visa denied the former Dundee United and St Johnstone striker a dream debut on Tuesday – and could even rule him out of the first league game at Alloa.
Samuel’s visa is understood to have expired, although talks with various authorities are ongoing to get the necessary paperwork rubber-stamped as soon as possible.
“It was a problem we weren’t aware of and Collin was very disappointed he couldn’t play,” Collumbine said.