Raith Rovers have confirmed that they should have a new chairman in place within the next fortnight following Turnbull Hutton’s decision to step down last month.
Hutton, who remains a significant shareholder at Stark’s Park, chaired his last board meeting in mid-November and the post has remained vacant since then, although the remaining board members are expected to get together before Christmas to elect his successor.
The club announced a near-20% increase in profit for the year of £97,499 and therefore will be keen to ensure as seamless a transition as possible.
“It’s still the case that the full new board will meet between now and Christmas and we expect to be able then to announce who will succeed Turnbull as chairman,” chief executive Eric Drysdale told The Courier.
“Meanwhile, it’s business as usual.”
Who will succeed Hutton remains anyone’s guess, although vice-chairman Mario Caira is thought to be the likely frontrunner.
Crime writer Val McDermid was added to the board last month and has ploughed significant sums into the Kirkcaldy club, while Kirkcaldy-born businessman John Sim, chief executive of Thai-based PKF International, rejoined the board at Stark’s Park and could also be a contender.
He played a key role in the club’s takeover nine years ago and is both a significant shareholder in the club’s holding company and a majority shareholder in the company which owns Stark’s Park.
Despite the impressive set of financial results announced last month, the Kirkcaldy club have stressed that it remains “essential” that the board maintains a close supervision of costs to continue the good progress made off the park.
The profit was achieved despite increased costs, which included extra expenditure of £75,000 on stadium infrastructure and maintenance in the summer, while the club revealed that the 2014/15 budget for medical costs has already been substantially breached due to a raft of injuries to players early in the season.
That should hopefully be offset by games against the likes of Rangers, Hearts and Hibs in this season’s Championship, and a decent Scottish Cup run, but Drysdale warned that tight control over expenditure is still needed.