Cowdenbeath FC could be forced into closure within a year unless at least £135,000 is ploughed into the club, its president has warned.
Scottish Government officials are to meet the Blue Brazil board to discuss the deepening crisis at the former mining town.
Raising the issue in the Scottish Parliament on Wednesday, Fife MSP Claire Baker called for football lovers around the world to chip in to save the 137-year-old club.
Alex Anderson, president of the club, which is cut adrift at the bottom of the football league, said losing the Central Park outfit would be “another nail in the coffin to a small community like this”.
“Within a year the club could disappear and I honestly don’t think people in Cowdenbeath appreciate how serious it is,” he said.
Mr Anderson said the £135,000 would allow them to keep going for a year after relegation from League Two – but they would have to achieve the “tall order” of bouncing straight back to avoid a fresh cash crisis.
Mrs Baker, for Scottish Labour, said: “The club is 137 years old and it is very important to the local community.
“The club no longer has the large mining community that it used to have for its support and the rent from the weekly market and the stock cars no longer comes to the club as it lost its ownership of Central Park.
“An emergency general meeting and a public meeting had to recently be cancelled because of the snow, but the club is clearly in a mode of fighting for survival.”
Aileen Campbell, the public health minister, backed the Labour MSP’s call for “locals and football lovers in the world all over to help save the club”.
She said she had instructed her officials to meet with club staff to discuss what can be done.
“I’m happy to lend my name to that call for people to get behind the club’s campaign,” Ms Campbell added.
“Fans are the lifeblood of Scottish football and certainly if anyone can make the difference to the club then I know it will be the club’s supporters.”
A club statement earlier in the month said “many, many options” had been explored since the fans took charge of the club’s operations in 2010 but it “must be concluded there is no white knight on the horizon”.
Last year, the Miners managed to avoid relegation for third season in a row – and dropping out of the Scottish Professional Football League – by beating East Kilbride in a play-off.
