SFA and SPFL to ask the government for a bail out

uneasydaz

Well-Known Member
THE SFA and SPFL are to ask the Scottish Government for financial support as they face up to the doomsday scenario of football grounds being closed to supporters for six months.

The First Minister once again pushed back an indicative date of October 5 for the return of spectators to live sporting events yesterday with a pause put on test events despite successful ones recently hosted by Aberdeen and Ross County.


With prime minister Boris Johnson saying that the new restrictions south of the border could last SIX months, there is a growing realisation within the Scottish game that fans won't be back in stadia anytime soon.

That could mean as much as a £40 to £50million black hole in Scottish clubs' finances.

The Scottish governing bodies will monitor ongoing discussions on financial bail-outs south of the border, although they are more reliant than England on match day revenue and cannot rely on the financial wealth of the Premier League.

Even if Championship sides are not forced to increase their testing, they face a difficult future if they are asked to pay player wages for months without being able to welcome supporters through the door.


One Premiership chief executive told the Daily Record: "This has been a very bleak day for the professional game in this country and the consequences will be catastrophic unless there is urgent government intervention.

"Six months without fans? Let's be blunt, we don't have six months. Clubs are going to go bust - a lot of them - and probably some of the biggest clubs we have. The next two months are going to be critical.

"First, academies will have to be stopped, player development will have to be stopped and all community coaching programmes will have to be stopped.

"Then, after all of those cuts have been made, clubs will take it in turns to go to the wall."


National clinical director Jason Leitch clarified the Government's stance yesterday, saying: "We're pausing the plan.

"We've managed to have safe return of elite sport and now contact sports for kids and adults. So, we're not stopping that, with all the other safety measures in place.


"Those things can go ahead, as long as there's Covid officers and things in place.

"What we're pausing is any progression to more opening. That doesn't seem the right thing to do, when we are restricting people in their own households and restricting hospitality so severely, to start to think about opening stadia.

"But we're reviewing that every three weeks. We're not ruling it out, but we're pausing that opening."
 
It aint going to happen. Football is way down the 'special case' Q. Unprecedented times, sink or float.
 
We are all paying into our Club via season ticket money for games we can't get to.I don't understand why other clubs can't do the same.Could they not organise a live stream to watch their games,can Doncaster and co take a wage cut,his wage alone would keep some of the league 1 and 2 clubs going,as a matter of fact just sack him for incompetence and put his salary into the game.
Football needs to help itself rather than taking money from the government that should be going to fund schools and hospitals.
 
I wonder if we will now see a fire sale of players from the likes of Hibs, Aberdeen, motherwell etc before the window closes
 
We are all paying into our Club via season ticket money for games we can't get to.I don't understand why other clubs can't do the same.Could they not organise a live stream to watch their games,can Doncaster and co take a wage cut,his wage alone would keep some of the league 1 and 2 clubs going,as a matter of fact just sack him for incompetence and put his salary into the game.
Football needs to help itself rather than taking money from the government that should be going to fund schools and hospitals.
Good point.

Rangers don't have fans through the gate, but still have the revenue.
Is this really just an admission that every other club has shite fans?

And they can spare us the cry baby stuff about "big clubs going to the wall".
These are the same people who voted for Hearts to be relegated.
 
Big Neil could do that by refusing his obscene salary, god knows what the rest of them are pocketing for failure.
There will be shouts for players to take cuts etc but that's for individual clubs and their contracts.
But it starts at the top his vastly over the top salary should be cut. Sacking if football doesnt open.
 
Good point.

Rangers don't have fans through the gate, but still have the revenue.
Is this really just an admission that every other club has shite fans?

And they can spare us the cry baby stuff about "big clubs going to the wall".
These are the same people who voted for Hearts to be relegated.

Read online Hearts fans were given a pledge that if they got a ST, they’d get admission to 18 games (even if it meant it would roll into the next season)

Now it appears the club are backtracking - and you can understand why - however their fans aren’t as understanding on the matter

I suspect many Hearts fans, and fans of other clubs, will now be looking for a partial refund. The only 2 teams I think that will be ok are us/Celtic
 
Personally would like to see Scottish football burn to the ground.
Those that are left can rise from the ashes and build a better football federation and develop a forward thinking and progressive organisation.

I think the SPL and SFA going bust/having no membership could be a silver lining in this pandemic.

We need dramatic changes which the current cronies have no interest in.

Our football is a joke, we allow hammer throwers to triumph over skill via poor officiating and perception of the rules.

A new league, no plastic pitches and kids being taught technique rather than blood and guts football sounds like Nirvana to me
 
So they want tax payers to fund insolvent clubs? Is there not a rule about government interference in football?

The clubs are being prevented from operating in their normal business activity by the government so it's not an unreasonable request.
 
Read online Hearts fans were given a pledge that if they got a ST, they’d get admission to 18 games (even if it meant it would roll into the next season)

Now it appears the club are backtracking - and you can understand why - however their fans aren’t as understanding on the matter

I suspect many Hearts fans, and fans of other clubs, will now be looking for a partial refund. The only 2 teams I think that will be ok are us/Celtic
How many STs do you reckon the filth have?

No guarantee of seeing Rangers? I think their numbers will be significantly lower.
 
How many STs do you reckon the filth have?

No guarantee of seeing Rangers? I think their numbers will be significantly lower.

I’d imagine at least 40,000 and that would be a conservative figure tbh
 
The clubs are being prevented from operating in their normal business activity by the government so it's not an unreasonable request.
They wouldn't be insolvent if the govt allowed fans in.

Point taken and agree however is it not a UEFA directive that no government should give financial aides to clubs?

I’d be concerned about any repercussions in relation to European competitions
 
Figure of 40 to 50 million looks grossly overstated particularly when you consider that the top clubs have, in fact, already sold season tickets in considerable numbers.
 
I've a feeling this could shake up the entire British game. English lower league clubs will disappear too. Could actually end up being an opportunity for us and I won't give one single f*ck for any Scottish club going to the wall. I really hope it's a few of the 2012 mob.
 
I’d be very surprised if the Scottish Government has a spare £40m - £50m lying around that it can be seen to give to the SPFL/ SFA at this point.

It doesn’t look good for the lower league clubs particularly and as the economic support measures start to be withdrawn, getting cash from fans is going to become increasingly difficult.
 
Point taken and agree however is it not a UEFA directive that no government should give financial aides to clubs?

I’d be concerned about any repercussions in relation to European competitions

True mate but these are unprecedented times, I'd imagine the rule to to prevent clubs being helped over and above normal circumstances.
 
Steven Gerrard is a global brand. He manages the biggest team in the country. I still can’t get my head around why we don’t have or can’t attract a suitable sponsor.

And here we are with the begging bowl out devoid of any intent on progression...

would anyone seriously trust the powers that be to use any handout effectively?
 
I wonder if we will now see a fire sale of players from the likes of Hibs, Aberdeen, motherwell etc before the window closes
Already started. Motherwell and Aberdeen are safe for now with the sales of Turnbull and McKenna. Hibs will be in trouble without doing the same.
 
Based on what Sturgeon is saying about a vaccine, it's likely there will be no crowds back in grounds in Scotland til one is found. The game is finished up here as we know it.
Which might be a good thing.
 
We are all paying into our Club via season ticket money for games we can't get to.I don't understand why other clubs can't do the same.Could they not organise a live stream to watch their games,can Doncaster and co take a wage cut,his wage alone would keep some of the league 1 and 2 clubs going,as a matter of fact just sack him for incompetence and put his salary into the game.
Football needs to help itself rather than taking money from the government that should be going to fund schools and hospitals.

Spot on. Why should we subsidise these clubs as taxpayers? Half of them restrict entry for our fans, all of them wanted us out down to the bottom of the league and our ‘biggest’ clubs wanted us dead. But we are the ones who sell our tickets, would have filled their stadiums and attract what little TV money there is. They have players they can sell and the smaller ones hardly need maintenance at all. They have stadiums 100 yards from each other and get a hundred fans through the turnstiles. Let the wonder kid on 400k figure out better TV deals and sponsorship deals before he raids the tax payer - as you say to subsidise expenses and salaries of a corrupt sport.
 
It aint going to happen. Football is way down the 'special case' Q. Unprecedented times, sink or float.
It really shouldnt be. Football is giving lots of people something to look forward to while most of we are experiencing is doom and gloom. I have no problem in some of my tax heading that way.
 
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