The Courier’s Ian Roache covered Dundee FC’s first taste of administration and looks back on the dark days of 2003.
Courier readers were greeted by the heading “Administration fears over Dundee FC” as they picked up their papers on the morning of November 20, 2003.
Administration has become all too familiar to football fans over the years but it was a step into the unknown back then.
Ominous signs followed the previous week’s decision by an SPL tribunal to not award the Dark Blues compensation for the loss of defender Zurab Khizanishvili to Rangers.
In the wake of that news, chief executive Peter Marr and his brother Jimmy disclosed they were considering their future in football.
Meanwhile, Dundee fans had seen their hopes raised by promises of untold wealth being invested into their team by Anglo-Italian business man Giovanni di Stefano.
Four days later, the club was placed in voluntary administration, with debts initially estimated at £20 million by administrators Ernst & Young but later revised to £23 million.
The man who assumed control was Tom Burton and, like Bryan Jackson second time around, he had the thankless task of wielding the axe.
Dundee’s dive into the mire was accompanied by a bitter feud between di Stefano and the other three directors the Marrs and Jim Connor.
Di Stefano had criticised the trio over going into administration and revealed that he was offered control for £1 as long as he took on board all the club’s liabilities, echoing the scenario facing Dundee United associate director John Bennett when he purchased Dens Park last year.
Club spokesman Niall Scott admitted such a proposal had been on the table, but implied the rest of the directors did not trust di Stefano to produce his promised cash injection.
Di Stefano claimed that calling in the accountants would sound the club’s death knell.
He said, “I know people will try and make me a scapegoat, but let’s be clear, it was not me who accrued these liabilities.”
Soon came the confirmation of 25 redundancies, announced via administrator Burton.
They said, “Regrettably, this means that 25 of the 70 full-time staff employed at Dundee have had their contracts terminated.”
Heading the list of sackings were stars such as Fabrizio Ravanelli, Georgi Nemsadze and Craig Burley, as well as coaches, scouts and office staff.
News of who was going was broken to the playing staff by manager Jim Duffy.
He said, “I genuinely feel devastated…shattered.”
Sadly, there is more devastation and more shattered careers at Dens today as the axe is wielded yet again.