The future of one of Scotland’s Elite Ice-Hockey clubs is in doubt with the team being put up for sale.

The Fife Flyers, based in Kirkcaldy, are the oldest existing club in the country being formed in 1938 with current owners Tom Muir and Jack Wishart in charge since1996, set to call time on their stewardship after 28 years of running the club.

The news has rocked the Fife community, with fans fearing they will be frozen out with no team to follow after this season ends, should there be no deal completed with the Elite Ice Hockey League needing a definitive answer by mid-May before next season’s fixtures are decided.

The result will have an impact on the sport in Scotland, with Fife being one of only three Scottish clubs competing at the top level, along with Dundee Stars and Glasgow Clan.

Teams in Scotland are already up against it with imports from overseas attracted to big City clubs such as Belfast, Cardiff and Sheffield.

Amanda Maitland, Librarian at University West of Scotland in Ayr has followed hockey since she was 17-years old, and says if Flyers don’t remain in the league, it will have a huge impact all Scottish based fans of Elite League sides.

She told uwsnews: “For fans, it would cost a fortune. They’d maybe bring in another team. Hopefully Fife will get bought over, but they would likely bring in another team and it would mean even more travelling if you want to follow. You have Belfast, Guildford, Nottingham, Manchester, Sheffield. They’re all in England, there’s nothing local at all. In our league we don’t play in Dumfries, or Edinburgh, so it’ll be very hard to go and follow.“

This season has been a difficult one so far for all three teams north of the border. Dundee, Fife and Glasgow make up three of the bottom four in the standings, with the higher placed Glasgow Clan eight points behind Guildford Flames in seventh.

Amanda, who firstly followed Ayr Raiders and Ayr Eagles before watching Glasgow, advised: “There’s a lot of money behind [non-Scottish teams]. Belfast have a lovely big arena, the same with Sheffield. Braehead is an add-on, it’s like an ice rink in a shopping centre, where as when you had a big ice rink down at Ayr Centrum, it was purpose built.”

And it won’t only be the passion and support for the teams that will be lost. Life-long friendships that have lasted through the competitiveness will be put to the test, with the emotional and human side coming under strain.

Amanda added: “The couple that sits next to me, he supported football all of his days. They came to the ice-hockey just once and his partner was hooked and he then gave up his season ticket for the football to be a season ticket holder for the ice-hockey. She wouldn’t go to the football, so it becomes a family thing.

“My son played ice-hockey from when he was five, my husband played it at local level, and my son played for Scotland. When we grew up it was everything. He went and trained, my son is 26 now and we’ve got a group of friends that are still with us after all these years. We don’t see them everyday, but it’s a close knit family. We’ve made friends from Dumfries, Dundee, Sheffield. There’s no rivalry, although there is banter rivalry, the football rivalry is not there, and fans get together. “