By now, most of us will surely be accustomed to the doom and gloom headlines regarding the recession. Of course, football (north of the border in any case) hasn’t exactly been immune to the ravages of these challenging economic times. Indeed, fans of the beautiful game could perhaps be forgiven for assuming that the back pages of late have more closely resembled the Financial Times reports than sports news.
Although it was widely considered that the financial mire which engulfed Rangers last season could be classed as extreme circumstances, fans would not be so naive as to think that fiscal problems were now a thing of the past.
Hearts have become the latest club to be threatened with impending closure, should they fail to settle an HMRC bill to the tune of £450,000. The Gorgie club has been given a slight stay of execution, but they must still come up with the balance due this side of Christmas if they are to continue as a going concern into 2013.
Hearts, who have already struggled to pay some players on time going back some months, are in debt to the tune of £22m. At first glance, that amount may not appear to be overly worrying, although the fact that Lithuanian owner Vladimir Romanov has previously stated his desire to sell the club, (but failed to attract interest to date, far less a buyer) will have left Hearts fans feeling more than a little vulnerable.
This is hardly surprising –if a club of Rangers’(former) status in the game struggled to attract suitors during their own troubled financial times, what chance Hearts? No disrespect, but it’s difficult to imagine a queue of would-be buyers willing to take on that level of debt down Tynecastle way any time soon.
Dunfermline Athletic then confirmed last week that they have a matter of days to stump up the £81,000 owed to HMRC. That’s how precarious matters have become in Scotland. Think about it, £81,000, the sort of sum that Wayne Rooney and most of the Manchester City squad each earns in a weekend, and it could effectively lead to the closure of one of Scottish football’s oldest clubs.
Interestingly, Celtic’s Chief Executive, Peter Lawwell, entered the fray last week, when he confirmed that Uefa are currently giving consideration to the notion of cross-border leagues. Of course, this could in theory be more in hope than expectation on Lawwell’s part – it wouldn’t be the first time the Old Firm have sought to flirt with the English Premiership, for instance – but his words resonated with more than a passing interest in the current climate.
Lawwell, after all, was speaking at Celtic’s AGM, where he announced a loss of £7m for the club over the past year. This will not trouble Celtic unduly, particularly given that figure will be more than recovered by virtue of participation in the Champions League group stages (and possibly beyond) this season. Nevertheless, Lawwell knows that the Scottish league in its current guise simply cannot continue to function with any optimism for the future from a financial standpoint alone.
He reminded us that, from broadcast rights, Scottish clubs earn approximately 1% of the total TV revenue enjoyed by English clubs. With figures like that, it’s easy to see that something has to change. (Little wonder, too, that Celtic have been eyeing a move south for some time now). That change, however, is unlikely to extend to English clubs agreeing to spread their wealth around, no matter the perilous state of their neighbour’s finances.
The possibility of league restructuring has once more manifested itself, although, against the backdrop of the current financial malaise, it’s assumed a heightened sense of urgency this time around. Warm words and ideas will no longer suffice – action is needed as a matter of priority. For some, the consequences of failure don’t bare thinking about.
Whatever the outcome of the discussions between the SPL and SFL, the hope remains that –finally –the greater good of the game will exceed self-interest in the matter of attracting increased investment and much-needed commercial acumen to the game.
In that regard, I was reminded of a line in Martin Amis' fine novel, Money. In a moment of rare benevolence, the book’s main character, John Self, muses: ‘If we could spread money shallow it would act like a layer over everything.’ Quite.