Buckie set for cutbacks after cash row
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“CRAZY” BUCKIE Thistle expenditure, including a quarter of a million pound wages and travel bill, prompted club chairman Mark Duncan to storm out of an explosive club AGM.
But Duncan (pictured right) says fan power persuaded him not to quit from the helm of the Highland League champs.
And the defiant president has told worried supporters that Jags are not in debt or in danger of folding – despite the figures revealed on their balance sheet – but must aim to trim £110,000 from their spending over the next year.
The coast side spent more than £236,000 on players’ wages and travel expenses during the year up until March 31. Cash pumped into club by vice chairman Iain Clark and treasurer Garry Farquhar helped to give manager Gregg Carrol the spending power to build a formidable squad, which has become the best in the Highland League.
Clark’s input alone amounted to £113,360, but the Aberdeen-based businessman has since quit the club, leaving fans wondering who will now foot the bill if Jags tried to maintain their big spending.
And Duncan told the Northern Scot this week: “There is a big difference between being ambitious and being stupid. We’ve been ambitious all the way along the line but we’re only interested in spending money that’s sustainable in the long term for the club.”
That suggested a difference of opinion between Duncan and his treasurer Farquhar, who has pumped nearly £80,000 into Victoria Park over the past two seasons and told the meeting that cutting the club’s wage bill would not be an option when players had been signed on long-term contracts.
The clash over increasing costs led Duncan and his brother, Murray, a fellow committee member, to walk out of the stormy meeting last Thursday in the Victoria Park function hall. The pair signalled their intention not to seek re-election to the Jags’ board, but when angry fans rallied in their support they were persuaded to return.
“From our point of view we were out of the club, that was us finished. So it was the fans who drove us back in there.
Now Mark Duncan has issued a five-point contingency plan, including cuts to players’ wages and the size of manager Gregg Carrol’s squad, to help reduce the club’s spending figures.
For full story, see Friday's Northern Scot.
