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."
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."