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Aberdeen are set to apply for a Government crisis loan as fears grow that fans may not be back inside Scottish football grounds by the start of next season.
Record Sport understands chairman Dave Cormack will press the button on the emergency bailout once the final details of the terms and conditions are finally cleared up.
But as the Covid crisis deepens across the game League One and League Two are preparing for at least another month of lockdown - with clubs in the Highland and Lowland Leagues now on the verge of declaring the current campaign null and void.
All 12 top flight clubs can claim around £1.7million of funding from Holyrood in order to survive without match day income but not a penny of that £20m pot has been released despite weeks of talks between the Government and SFA chief executive Ian Maxwell.
However, those discussions are now at an advanced stage and Aberdeen will be among the first to accept the financial package as the crippling financial consequences of the coronavirus pandemic begin to bite hard.
Cormack released a video message to the club’s fans on Wednesday in which he painted an alarmingly gloomy picture and expressed doubt over whether or not next season’s Premiership will even be able to kick off as scheduled in August.
In the social media post Cormack said: “I made a commitment that we would be as transparent as we can be with things around the club - the financials and any information that we can give. But it has to be based on facts and it has to be based on data.
“I’m asking you to be patient and the reason I’m asking you to be patient is because right now my focus, the board’s focus, the management team’s focus is on the financial sustainability of the club because we’ve still got hardly any income and who knows when income will come back?
“Will we be able to announce a new season that’s going to start in August of this year?
“This great club has never gone bust in 117 years and it’s certainly not going to do so on my watch, without us pulling out all the stops to get through this.”
And, following Nicola Sturgeon’s daily Covid briefing yesterday, sources close to the Pittodrie chief doubled down on the chairman’s message.
One told us: “Aberdeen are a well run club and we will get through this. We have insurance which will cover some of the losses caused by the pandemic and we also brought in £3m from the sale of Scott McKenna. That puts us in a better place than many others.
“But, even so, our financial projections show we expect £10m income with costs running at £5m. You don’t need to be a chartered accountant to work out what that means.
“The Government loan will also help the club to get through this but let’s be very clear here, all of Scottish football should be absolutely frightened right now about what lies ahead.”
Record Sport understands chairman Dave Cormack will press the button on the emergency bailout once the final details of the terms and conditions are finally cleared up.
But as the Covid crisis deepens across the game League One and League Two are preparing for at least another month of lockdown - with clubs in the Highland and Lowland Leagues now on the verge of declaring the current campaign null and void.
All 12 top flight clubs can claim around £1.7million of funding from Holyrood in order to survive without match day income but not a penny of that £20m pot has been released despite weeks of talks between the Government and SFA chief executive Ian Maxwell.
However, those discussions are now at an advanced stage and Aberdeen will be among the first to accept the financial package as the crippling financial consequences of the coronavirus pandemic begin to bite hard.
Cormack released a video message to the club’s fans on Wednesday in which he painted an alarmingly gloomy picture and expressed doubt over whether or not next season’s Premiership will even be able to kick off as scheduled in August.
In the social media post Cormack said: “I made a commitment that we would be as transparent as we can be with things around the club - the financials and any information that we can give. But it has to be based on facts and it has to be based on data.
“I’m asking you to be patient and the reason I’m asking you to be patient is because right now my focus, the board’s focus, the management team’s focus is on the financial sustainability of the club because we’ve still got hardly any income and who knows when income will come back?
“Will we be able to announce a new season that’s going to start in August of this year?
“This great club has never gone bust in 117 years and it’s certainly not going to do so on my watch, without us pulling out all the stops to get through this.”
And, following Nicola Sturgeon’s daily Covid briefing yesterday, sources close to the Pittodrie chief doubled down on the chairman’s message.
One told us: “Aberdeen are a well run club and we will get through this. We have insurance which will cover some of the losses caused by the pandemic and we also brought in £3m from the sale of Scott McKenna. That puts us in a better place than many others.
“But, even so, our financial projections show we expect £10m income with costs running at £5m. You don’t need to be a chartered accountant to work out what that means.
“The Government loan will also help the club to get through this but let’s be very clear here, all of Scottish football should be absolutely frightened right now about what lies ahead.”
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