Skip to main content

Scottish clubs take big financial hit

Many Scottish football clubs could go bust in the next few months if they do not receive emergency funding says football finance expert Kieran Maguire: Funding needed to survive outbreak

Maguire said: 'What football now has is a cash flow crisis. Match day sales account for around half of the money taken in by Scottish clubs. They are reliant on supporters coming through the turnstiles to pay the bills. Even if they return to a scenario where matches are taking place behind closed doors in order to complete the season that is not going to address the problems that the clubs have. Having season ticket money in will negate cash flow issues for the bigger clubs. If you are a smaller club then your finances tend to be quite precarious.

Dunfermline Athletic had been on budget until the crisis struck, but are now hoping that season ticket sales in May will provide much needed cash flow: Dunfermline

South of the border there have been calls for Premier League clubs to fund their poorer counterparts, but with their own financial challenges, they are unlikely to be willing to do this. It is unlikely to happen in Scotland either.

Hearts owner Ann Budge, yesterday revealed the shutdown, which was only announced on Friday, had already left a £1 million void in the Tynecastle club’s finances and described the situation as 'serious'. Budge, whose 75.1 majority shareholding was due to be transferred to the Foundation of Hearts supporters’ group imminently, had budgeted for an income of £500,000 from four upcoming home fixtures and expected the club to bank the same amount from the cup semi-final.'

'In the blink of an eye, £1 million that we anticipated having as income in April has gone,' she said. 'That has a huge impact on any club. All clubs will have similar problems, maybe not to the same extent, but that's money we thought we would have that we won't have. Add to that the fact that we've spent a lot on infrastructure. Why? So that we can actually run events and have an income stream outside of football. We can't run events any more. From Friday, we were having all sorts of things cancelled. Our non-football income has also taken a hit.'

In a shock move Hearts have announced that they are halving the salaries of all staff.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

It's no deal say Spurs insiders over Taiwanese takeover

Senior figures at Tottenham Hotspur insisted on Friday that they had not been informed of any deal to sell Daniel Levy’s stake in the club. A business group, Eight Sports Capital — which is said to include a billionaire Taiwanese financier — claimed that it had an agreement in place to buy a 24.99 per cent stake in ENIC, the club’s majority owners, from Levy, who owns 29.88 per cent. The Times has been told Ng Wing Fai and Brooklyn Earick form part of the group, having both been linked previously to potential takeovers of the Premier League club. The Taiwanese businessman, Richard Tsai, is also said to be part of the consortium. He is reportedly worth £7 billion.  Last year Earick, the former DJ and tech entrepreneur, was part of an attempted £4.5 billion takeover, which was “unequivocally rejected” by Spurs.  An ENIC spokesperson said: “We can confirm that neither ENIC nor THFC are aware of any sale by Daniel Levy’s Family Trust of its minority stake in ENIC, THFC’...
Post a Comment
Read more

Reports about Charlton sale exaggerated

Reports have appeared in The Guardian and elsewhere that Charlton has been put up for sale. Richard Cawley is an authoritative local journalist who runs a South London Sport substack site.  He reached out to the club yesterday evening to ask for comment on The Guardian’s article. Early indications from the club have been that nothing has changed since the story about them seeking investment, except that it is now a different company doing it. Charlton have since managed to consolidate their place in the Championship, avoiding an instant return to League One, with their women’s side promoted to the WSL, returning to the top flight for the first time since 2007, although staying there is likely to be costly. It would be counter-intuitive for owners Global Football Partners not to progress the club when looking for investment, that the focus remains on driving it forward, that their spend this summer is in line with long-term planning and will see an increase in wages spent on players...
Post a Comment
Read more

Hull City's 'strange' loan

When football finance guru Kieran Maguire seems flashing lights in a club's loan deal, I become concerned.  He is the leading football finance expert in the UK. Hull City have borrowed £55m against their stadium and training ground yet they should get £30m from the Premier League before long.  What is going on? https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cpwel48y51do
Post a Comment
Read more