Livingston chairman Gordon McDougall admits fears over SPL proposals

Jan 13 2011 by Eric Mackinnon, West Lothian Courier

GORDON McDOUGALL fears Scottish Premier League bosses will push through their planned revolution of the game with the promise of extra cash for clubs handed a place in their proposed top two divisions — sending the remaining clubs into financial oblivion.

The Livingston chairman has watched with interest as the SPL have unveiled proposals to introduce two top divisions of 10 teams, with the leagues below regionalised.

All 12 current SPL clubs are set to gather at a meeting at Hampden on Monday but no formal resolution has been agreed and reports have claimed a planned vote on reform has been scrapped.

But McDougall is concerned that if the new proposals are eventually rubber-stamped, the real issue would be how changes could result in the SPL looking to claw back their settlement agreement which currently benefits all clubs in the Scottish Football League.

And he is also concerned that clubs outwith the top 20 spots needed for the two SPL divisions will be cast into financial oblivion in the new regionalised leagues.

McDougall said: “When the SPL originally broke away there was a settlement agreement between the SPL and the SFL which meant they would pay an annual £1.6m fee in perpetuity with a proviso that the SPL could have two clubs at a future date — which they took a few years later when they expanded from a 10 to a 12 team league.

“But the reports I’ve been reading in the newspapers seem to suggest the SPL have dangled a financial carrot in front of the SFL clubs by asking why they play in the SFL for the chance to win £60,000 or £70,000 when they win a championship when they could win around £700,000 by winning SPL2?

“Of course the clubs’ heads have been turned by these figures but that money is the settlement agreement money which they would be hoping to claim back.

“I’m fairly sure it will become evident in time that the SPL are going to try and claw back the whole settlement agreement of around £1.6m.

“People often ask why should the likes of Rangers and Celtic give money to the Scottish Football League? They are the big teams who need the big money so shouldn’t have to share.

“The best way I have heard it described was by Peter Donald, who to me was the master of football administration and a sad loss to the game at this time. Peter would say it is alimony for 130 years of marriage between all of the clubs in Scotland.

“Back in the late 1800s all the clubs in Scotland formed the Scottish League and played one another every week and shared the gates equally.

“This agreement took the game to great heights after the war and only when greed set in did the game fall apart.

“Like any marriage, if it breaks down there has got to be alimony.

“In a marriage that is for the wife and kids to keep going and in football it is for the other clubs to keep going and produce youth players who are the lifeblood of the game’s future.

“It can be easily explained but it is not so easy to explain what is best for Scottish football because in football terms we are a village – a small, small country.

“We need to discuss it amongst all the other SFL clubs but we also need dialogue with the SPL, which is something which hasn’t happened.

“The SPL look to be making the decision and we are just cannon fodder. They say they will take eight clubs from the SFL but where does it say they can do that?

They think that because they will dangle the settlement agreement cash the eight clubs will jump – and they probably will.

“What really annoys me is the way the SPL are conducting this whole agenda. They are acting as if they are the guardians of the game when they have done more to put us where we are than anyone else

“The SPL do not have a great record of getting things right.”

The proposed regionalisation of the leagues below the two SPL divisions has also been blasted by the Lions chief.

He reckons, if approved, it would make a mockery of the game in Scotland and eliminate any sense of pride at winning regional championships and any subsequent promotion.

He said: “It is only newspaper speculation but that is all we are getting at present. But if it proves to be correct then why should clubs keep going if they are dumped in a regionalised league?

“I make it 23 teams that could potentially make the top 20 and I include Livingston in that.

“There are some big clubs at our level, like Ayr United, who showed their potential with the crowd they took to Easter Road on Saturday.

“They are potentially as big a club as the likes of Dunfermline, Partick Thistle and Dunfermline.

“But if there are potentially 23 clubs who could be in the two SPL divisions it naturally means three of them could be cast into the oblivion of the regionalised leagues.

“I’d be very much against two tens until I saw the proposed financial structure to make sure no clubs are left in oblivion.

“We must ensure there is an equitable division of the available finances in the game which allow all clubs to prosper — not just the big clubs.

“Look at Arbroath, a side with more than a century of history. They have 500 fans which can grow to two or three thousand people if they are challenging for promotion at the end of the season.

“I know they don’t go every week but I bet every one of them looks out for their club’s results and football is a community game in Scotland.

“I believe the worst thing that could possibly happen would be to put B teams of the big SPL sides in the lower leagues.

“I’m very much against that as teams like ourselves already find it difficult enough to compete against these clubs when it comes to signing a young player.

“Our biggest bargaining chip is offering first-team football but should Hibs and Hearts and the likes have B teams they can offer the same.

“It is nonsense as well as a side like us could finish, say, seventh in the league table and win the championship and promotion if the SPL B teams occupy the top six and are banned from promotion.

“What sort of honour is there in finishing seventh and then being promoted?”