Chairman's Update - 4th March 2021

As usual I Hope this message finds you safe and well.

As you are aware, League 1 and 2 clubs have been given permission and have agreed to restart our season that was suspended in January. Like all teams, we are excited about the resumption but as things stand, we still await confirmation of the final format for our league fixtures.

The SPFL has still to confirm whether we will be playing 18 or 22 matches, but rest assured we are already gearing up to hit the ground running. All of our playing squad, management and backroom staff are tonight having their PCR testing carried out by an approved company. The results will be submitted to the SFA tomorrow at which point we would expect to be given the green light to restart training this weekend. Darren and his management team have been anticipating and planning for this from the moment the campaign was suspended, and the players will face a rigorous but measured couple of weeks of training ahead of our first game, which all being well will be on Saturday 20^th March.

Plans are also well advanced for augmenting the paying squad for what will be a hectic schedule in the weeks ahead. As soon as out fixtures are confirmed I will update you further.

Yours in sport

Jim Stevenson

Chairman

Chairman Jim Stevenson on Today's SFA Announcement

As most of you are aware the SFA has suspended all league football below Championship level & all Scottish Cup matches from midnight tonight. Whilst, as a club, we are disappointed, we fully understand and support this course of action. As things stand, our next scheduled game will be away to Montrose in League One on 6th February and already that can’t come soon enough.

As a result, Bayview will be closed for everything other than essential maintenance. The office switchboard will however remain open during normal office hours.

Please stay safe & we hope to see you before too long.

Jim Stevenson

Chairman

Thomas Collins Joins Stenhousemuir on Loan

We can confirm that Thomas Collins has joined League 2 side Stenhousemuir on loan until the end of the season.

Thomas joined the club in the summer from BSC Glasgow but with his match time limited so far this season, Manager Darren Young felt the midfielder would benefit from a run of regular first-team football: “I’m sure Thomas will make the most of his opportunity at Stenhousemuir and he’ll come back with a lot more experience which will stand him in good stead to come back into the squad next season.”

All the best Thomas!

Ryan Wallace Extends Contract Until 2023

We’re delighted to announce that Ryan Wallace has penned a 2.5-year extension to his contract, keeping him at Bayview until the summer of 2023.

Ryan has 90 appearances and 44 East Fife goals to his name over two spells at the Club.

Darren Young: “Ryan’s current contract was up at the end of the season so it’s great to get him signed up again. He’s done very well for us since re-joining last season so we’re delighted to extend his contract.”.

Chairman's New Year Message

Well, it’s near the end of a very difficult year for everyone. We, as a club, have lost too many friends who were lifelong supporters, and our thoughts go out to all who have lost family and friends during this most trying of years.

On the football front we have managed to navigate through these months with a great deal of help from you, our wonderful fans who bought season tickets and donated in all the various ways available to help the club.

I must also thank all our sponsors who were able to support us at this time.

Added to them has been the James Anderson grant, SFA and SPFL grants also grants from the Government. They all very much help.

A special mention must go out to our volunteers who have consistently made themselves available to help the club every week. Without them it would have been impossible to carry out all the work required during the pandemic.

Thanks also to Fifers for the Community for all their work with the installation of the new floodlights and working hard to keep our local youngsters training and using Bayview.

The Management team & the playing squad have also been supportive since the start of the pandemic in March. We, as a Club, have done everything possible to look after our employees and their understanding & appreciation has helped ease our financial burden.

Our EFTV media team has soldiered on in very difficult circumstances and I thank them so much as their efforts mean that fans everywhere can still watch our games on matchday. On that, I would ask as many of our fans as possible to use the EFTV live streaming facility for our home games. This has been our only regular income since the start of the season, as it will likely be for the remainder of the season.

Finally, I would like to thank the Directors & staff for all the support and help I have had throughout this past year.

May the New Year see an end to the virus and that we are able to get back to some form of normality in the not-too-distant future.

Happy New Year

Jim Stevenson

Chairman.