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Meeting the “Mighty Fife” Chair

Sporting Memories East Fife club welcomed the new East Fife FC Chairman, Liam Anderson, recently. It seemed like a good opportunity to ask him about the plans and future of East Fife FC. Liam is a lifelong supporter of his local club and has been deeply involved with many aspects of the club including the Young Fifers for developing youth talent and the East Fife Community Trust of which he is a founder member. 

Liam has been on the club’s board since 2015 as an associate Director, becoming a full Director in 2021 and had his arm twisted, or so he said, to take up the Chairman position earlier this year. 

Being a Chairman 

We asked Liam to outline his responsibilities at the club to our members and were quite overwhelmed to find that he looks after: player welfare, the management team, the running of the stadium, overseeing maintenance, keeping the club debt free (very important), the commercial arm of the club and being available for all his Directors. He did say that he has a sizeable board with 6 full-time and 5 associate directors. But he also explained that no-one has a ‘free ride’ and everyone is expected to pull their weight. Nevertheless to say he is busy is a vast understatement. 

Lower Leagues Matter 

Now many of you reading this will be thinking East Fife FC – ‘Ach! that’s one of the lower league sides. Who bothers with them’. Well, if you had expressed that opinion to our meeting, the die hard club fans (and Liam) would have had your guts for garters. They all went on to fervently explain that the club matters, rain, hail or shine, 

Without lower league clubs the likelihood of accessible football for communities would be lost forever. Local clubs form such a huge part of local life with most clubs running outreach programmes for young local talent and supporting various initiatives such as providing a warm welcoming space for Sporting Memories every week.  

They also bring a more intangible benefit of community pride – when the team does well, people celebrate together and when the team struggles, locals commiserate together. Local football provides the opportunity for chat and reminiscence, as well as some money into the local economy too. 

Liam also took the opportunity, when asked, to explain the vagaries of Scottish football finance and that was a real shocker to everyone around the table. The recompense system is decided by the SPFL and, surprise, surprise, that select group has 12 votes from the Premier League big boys and all the rest of the leagues have one solitary vote between them. Not to dwell too long on this somewhat contentious issue but it now became quite clear to the group that the odds are severely stacked against all lower league clubs. So, support matters even more. 

Winding up a superb session 

Liam expressed his deep wish that East Fife can continue to be a safe place every match day for families to come to and enjoy the football no matter the score sheet – but a win is always very welcome! 

Our East Fife Sporting Memories Club runs every Monday from 2pm to 3:30pm at the MGM Timber Bayview Stadium. To find out more about joining the sessions, email office@eastfifefc.info or call 01333 426 323