Queen of the South left with just three players

[Coisty09]

Fans are trying to make a bigger issue out of this than it actually is. Clubs outside of the top flight rarely offer anything more than one season contracts. Usually they'd be expected to offer extensions before the end of a season and recruit replacements during the summer. Right now we're seeing contracts exhaust and players released because clubs have no certainty as to when football will resume. As most clubs rely on match day income and there is currently no plans for the resumption of football with crowds, clubs are preparing for a longer period without revenue by not renewing contracts. Those players will still be out there looking for clubs when football gets the OK to return with crowds in stadiums. At that point clubs will be signing players again.

The reality of lower league football in Scotland is 1 season contracts. Clubs can essentially be mothballed if they have no player costs until such times as football can return. In the short term this was always going to affect smaller clubs disproportionately because those clubs would typically have limited cash reserves and very minor credit facilities. Once player contracts exhaust, the lower league clubs can manage costs and should be able to be mothballed until such times as football returns. Top flight clubs are the other way round - cash reserves and credit facilities to see out the remaining weeks of this season but increasingly difficult with multi-year contracts still to be paid the longer lockdown goes on.

We're seeing threads on FF every time a lower league side releases players. All it really shows is how little fans on here appreciate the reality of lower league club football.

I think you are being massively optimistic.
I reckon there will be about 20 clubs left by January next year.

 

[iaatpies]

I think you are being massively optimistic.
I reckon there will be about 20 clubs left by January next year.

Most will be mothballed if we can't have fans in stadiums. Given that outside of player costs very few will have much in the way of other expenses, lower league sides will largely be ok once player contracts have exhausted. Pull the shutters down and wake them up when fans can return to games. Much bigger problem for teams with players on multi-season contracts and full time non-playing staff.

 

[LetsGo]

Fans are trying to make a bigger issue out of this than it actually is. Clubs outside of the top flight rarely offer anything more than one season contracts. Usually they'd be expected to offer extensions before the end of a season and recruit replacements during the summer. Right now we're seeing contracts exhaust and players released because clubs have no certainty as to when football will resume. As most clubs rely on match day income and there is currently no plans for the resumption of football with crowds, clubs are preparing for a longer period without revenue by not renewing contracts. Those players will still be out there looking for clubs when football gets the OK to return with crowds in stadiums. At that point clubs will be signing players again.

Why aren't they extending contracts and furloughing their players?

 

[top_cat]

I can envisage many clubs going to the wall, hey ho.

 

[iaatpies]

Why aren't they extending contracts and furloughing their players?

Why would they? Furlough only pays a percentage of wages. That is going to reduce and there's no indication as to when clubs will be able to play football in front of fans. Why would they take on additional financial obligations when they don't know when football with crowds will resume?

Nobody at that level will be signing players. Not as if they're in danger of being left behind whilst other teams build squads.

 

[pearljammer]

My local team and my grandad who was a big Queens fan used to take me along when i was a kid.Went to the odd game through the years when the Gers werent playing,but since 2012 i have never been back and couldnt care less.

 

[rupertdabear]

not any sympathy for them but actually think they have got lucky only having 3 players on longer contracts. if they had a squad of 15 tied for another year the big bad wolf would have been knocking on the door .
blessing in disguise .plenty of players will be looking for a gig as soon as this all lifts so wouldn't think it will affect them that much other than saving their hides

 

[rupertdabear]

1 - 1 - 1 Formation

class

 

[Blue 9]

Are we supposed to care .

 

[Ibroxroar]

Certainly something that will be driving league reconstruction talks. Thats why 14-14-14 has legs. Top 12 plus the top 2 from the Championship would potentially be looking at behind closed doors. That may well be where Dundee see an advantage. Could Caley Thistle commit to a season where they don't know when crowds would be able to return?

Tiers 2 and 3 would essentially be mothballed until fans could return to matches. Potential there for a shortened 26 game season.

Has the big hitter been pulling the strings to get Dundee into the top division. May explain the vote switch.

 

[Ibroxroar]

I think a 16 team league will be forced on us as has been the master plan/ carrot dangled to dundee.

16 team full professional league the drum beats started by strachan in the media the other day sly bastards

Strachan's comments coincidences with teams saying they can't play BCD. Big hitter and spfl pulling the strings behind the scenes to payback a certain team all in the name of saving Scottish football.

 

[Beer Belly Loyal]

Now official: QOS have more fans than players.

 

[DoitdoitdoitnowWATP]

But but but the SPFL's resolution was the ONLY WAY to prevent financial disaster for these clubs?

F*ck them all

 

[DoitdoitdoitnowWATP]

F*ck them all

Weren’t we all told the vote to hand the filth the title was in fact the “Scottish football survival plan” as Keith Jackson kept calling it. Was voting yes to wrongly hand out trophies and relegate clubs not meant to avoid all of this chaos.

I’d even have a shred of sympathy for some of these clubs that voted for the proposal to end the season if they were man enough to admit they done it for the money but also acknowledged that the process was dodgy and had therefore voted for the independent enquiry.

As it was, most of them voted against it and sided with the corrupt SPFL scum and by extension the mentally challengeds so fûck the lot of them.

Who

 

[ricksen24]

Bye

 

[shug1971]

not any sympathy for them but actually think they have got lucky only having 3 players on longer contracts. if they had a squad of 15 tied for another year the big bad wolf would have been knocking on the door .
blessing in disguise .plenty of players will be looking for a gig as soon as this all lifts so wouldn't think it will affect them that much other than saving their hides

Bingo. It’s gonna be far worse for the likes of us and the tims.

 

[Bishybear30]

One of many who go bust I hope. Bye bye

 

[UpperCanadianLoyal]

Ho hum how sad.

Not.

 

[Arkanoid]

Don't let the door hit your arse on the way out of existence

 

[Johnny Fontane]

Won't they just sign them again once there's certainty about games? The players will have no clubs, the clubs will have no players, seems like a match made in heaven when that time comes. No different to most other industries at the minute.

 

[KirkwallTrueBlue]

Peoples mindset is all wrong, releasing players and letting players go costs them nothing, if they had 18 players on 12 months contract then they might be in trouble..absolute moon howling story.

 

[iaatpies]

Peoples mindset is all wrong, releasing players and letting players go costs them nothing, if they had 18 players on 12 months contract then they might be in trouble..absolute moon howling story.

That doesnt feed into the current FF mindset of trying to wallow in misery, even if all it really shows is how little fans on here know about how lower league football works. We used to complain that Celtic fans hated Rangers more than they loved their own corrupt club and laugh at the masonic conspiracy nonsense that they regularly came out with. We're starting to resemble the very personality flaws that we ridiculed the mhank fans for.

 

[Buzz07]

Peoples mindset is all wrong, releasing players and letting players go costs them nothing, if they had 18 players on 12 months contract then they might be in trouble..absolute moon howling story.

Exactly mate. With no players, they have nothing at all to pay out. As soon as games are to be played, they will sign most of the ones they've just let go.

 

[BigJC]

Fans are trying to make a bigger issue out of this than it actually is. Clubs outside of the top flight rarely offer anything more than one season contracts. Usually they'd be expected to offer extensions before the end of a season and recruit replacements during the summer. Right now we're seeing contracts exhaust and players released because clubs have no certainty as to when football will resume. As most clubs rely on match day income and there is currently no plans for the resumption of football with crowds, clubs are preparing for a longer period without revenue by not renewing contracts. Those players will still be out there looking for clubs when football gets the OK to return with crowds in stadiums. At that point clubs will be signing players again.

The reality of lower league football in Scotland is 1 season contracts. Clubs can essentially be mothballed if they have no player costs until such times as football can return. In the short term this was always going to affect smaller clubs disproportionately because those clubs would typically have limited cash reserves and very minor credit facilities. Once player contracts exhaust, the lower league clubs can manage costs and should be able to be mothballed until such times as football returns. Top flight clubs are the other way round - cash reserves and credit facilities to see out the remaining weeks of this season but increasingly difficult with multi-year contracts still to be paid the longer lockdown goes on.

We're seeing threads on FF every time a lower league side releases players. All it really shows is how little fans on here appreciate the reality of lower league club football.

Spot on. You can look at this another way, QOS have very little ongoing costs as they have no wages to pay. With other clubs trying to release players they can pick up a squad really quickly and cheaply as they will be desperate for a job.

 

[Bruce_Wayne]

I don't get the 'they voted for this, f*ck them' posts on here.

Would they not have been in this position whether they voted for the resolution or not?

 

[rez1872]

%^*& them. This is what you get for backing Pete’s patsy at the SPFL

 

[Chinggis_could_I_khant]

There's going to be a number of clubs throughout the UK that will struggle to keep going without bums on seats. I know a lot of people have written off the chances of reconstruction to a British league but I'm keeping my fingers crossed enough clubs go under to warrant it happening.

 

[RenfrewBear72]

Bye bye, the more diddy clubs that die the less shite Scottish football will be.

 

[Calvinist]

I don't get the 'they voted for this, f*ck them' posts on here.

Would they not have been in this position whether they voted for the resolution or not?

maybe it stems from the open hostility towards our club in 2012 when they were very vocal in opposition to us .

they were very much part of the “we would rather die than see rangers play again” frenzy .

their recent behaviour to vote Partick out when thistle were only 2 points behind them with a game in hand highlights their attitude to sporting integrity .

so f.uck them

 

[Johnny Fontane]

Bye bye, the more diddy clubs that die the less shite Scottish football will be.

They have virtually no costs, their crowds are so small that playing behind closed doors will make little difference and they can probably adapt better the current situation better than most to flight clubs

 

[iaatpies]

They have virtually no costs, their crowds are so small that playing behind closed doors will make little difference and they can probably adapt better the current situation better than most to flight clubs

Actually you're wrong. They might have small crowds but their share of league money doesnt keep them going. Match day income and sponsorship does. Clubs in Scotland need fans in stadiums. If fans can't get back to games then we're looking at teams being mothballed. Once player contracts run down, the lack of overheads will likely save a lot of teams from going to the wall.

 

[RenfrewBear72]

They have virtually no costs, their crowds are so small that playing behind closed doors will make little difference and they can probably adapt better the current situation better than most to flight clubs

Can't play with no players can they?

 

[Chris the Bandito]

I can't criticise QOS or teams like them for backing a resolution that ended the season. They needed an end of the players contracts to cut costs with no income coming in.

My ire remains focussed on the corrupt board of the spfl who decided there was only one possible way to end the season - which just so happened to be the way that benefited the board and a select few others with potentially fatal consequences for some of their other members, and were happy to bribe, blackmail, threaten, lie and choose only to represent the interests of a fraction of their shareholders.

 

[CR7]

I don’t get the serves them right etc comments on here as if anything voting to end the season etc has helped these clubs, trying to play out the season would have been financial suicide for these clubs as they would have had to extend contracts etc while having no income from gate receipts.

 

[Necro]

A lot of our academy players will end up getting full seasons in the championship because of this

 

[iaatpies]

A lot of our academy players will end up getting full seasons in the championship because of this

Only if older players retire rather than returning to football when the season can start and clubs are recruiting.

 

[Necro]

Only if older players retire rather than returning to football when the season can start and clubs are recruiting.

We'll pay over half of the wages, it will be cheaper for them

 

[iaatpies]

We'll pay over half of the wages, it will be cheaper for them

Clubs will still need a core of experienced players. Lucky if a team will take 2 or 3 loans each.

 

[Thornliebank_Bear]

Lie with the dugz get up looking like mugz... no sympathy left for any of these teams.

 

[Rangers_loyal_1]

No one would notice if they and another 20 went unfortunately.