ATHLETIC have announced that Greg Shields will head up the football side of their academy.

The former full back, who made more than 200 appearances for the Pars during two spells as a player, will be tasked with helping develop their future batch of stars after moving away from his previous role with the first team.

Bill Hendry, who had previously been head of the Fife Elite Football Academy (FEFA), has taken on the position as the academy's head of operations as part of a revised management structure.

Last year, following Dunfermline's decision to re-establish its own academy, which became operational at the beginning of 2022, FEFA - a collaborative project involving the Pars, Raith Rovers, Cowdenbeath and East Fife - ceased operations.

Hendry was quoted by Youth Football Scotland as saying: "Fife Elite Football Academy will cease to exist as of Dec 31st 2021.

"Dunfermline Athletic have decided that they want to progress with their own academy and as a consequence the remaining clubs; Raith Rovers, Cowdenbeath and East Fife can’t commit the funding required to keep Fife Elite alive. I have been asked by Dunfermline Athletic to head up their new academy and look forward to the challenge of doing so.

"Fife Elite was in existence since August 2014 and in that period over 40 players went on to secure professional contracts at the four clubs. That has to be regarded as an unqualified success and I am privileged to have been a part of that.

"I would like to thank the Board members of Fife Elite for giving me the opportunity to work within the Academy over that last 7 years. I now look forward to new challenges in taking the Dunfermline Athletic Academy forward in the coming years."

The Pars said that they owed a "great debt" to Hendry, who has also held a senior academy position with Hibernian, commenting that he has been "instrumental in helping the club transfer over many aspects from Fife Elite into our newly formed operation".

Shields, who returned to the club in January 2019, from Carolina Railhawks in the United States, following the appointment of Stevie Crawford as the first team's head coach.

He will have responsibility for "the development of the Dunfermline Athletic youth football philosophy", and oversee all football aspects of the academy, whilst also helping to ensure that the transition from it to the first team "is bridged with his knowledge and experience in both areas".

David Cook, Pars chairman and CEO, commented: "Establishing and developing our Academy is a crucial part of the long-term strategy of Dunfermline Athletic.

"We have a lot of work to do in this space, but we are committed to building up a strong elite development pathway. We are already seeing the fruits of the labour with nine of the current first team coming from Fife Elite and our own academy. The ambition is to build this up even further.

"We are pleased to have Bill and Greg in place and believe their skills complement each other - with Bill extremely strong on the operational side coupled with Greg’s knowledge on the technical side. Greg will also play a pivotal role in helping young players as they move into the professional environment.

"Greg is a great example to our youth players. A local boy who represented the club with distinction playing in cup finals and Europe; being sold to a Premier League club in England; before coming back to the club - first as a player and then as a coach.

"I know both Bill and Greg are highly motivated in helping the Club to develop its Academy operations over the coming seasons."