The Political Economy of Football V2

Greenock Morton have sought to reassure supporters that although they face financial challenges they will not forfeit matches:  https://gmfc.net/club-update-16-08-26/ The club has been winless since March and has been reliant on teenagers brought in from school to fill the benches. East Kilbride's manager who own the Black Rooster chicken chain has offered to sponsor some shirts for the Championship side at £200 a go. One of Scotland's oldest clubs, Greenock Morton went into administration early in the current century and were relegated to the 3rd division/

Greenock Morton made a profit of nearly £200k in their first year as a  community owned club and although they are expecting a loss this year they think it will be manageable:  https://www.greenocktelegraph.co.uk/news/24707986.morton-show-six-figure-profit-last-financial-year/

Greenock Morton are now a fan owned football club:  https://www.supporters-direct.scot/greenock-morton-are-now-a-community-owned-football-club/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=scottish_supporters_network_october_2021_newsletter&utm_term=2021-10-12 There are now seven SPFL clubs where the fans have majority ownership of their club, and a further seven have a degree of representation within the governance of their club.

Greenock Morton are moving towards fan ownership in the summer of 2021.  The present owner is willing to write off the £2m debts and is ignoring a more lucrative offer:  https://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/international/greenock-morton-set-become-fan-owned-after-current-owners-reject-more-lucrative-offer-2908295 As a sceptic about fan ownership, I will follow with interest the work to be done over the next year to put the club in a financially strong position against the backdrop of Covid-19.   Inevitably there will be losses and the question is how fans will meet them.

Scottish Championship side Greenock Morton lost £75k in 2018/19 and have total losses over the years of £3.9 million, reports Kieran Maguire of the PriceofFootball. Greenock Morton’s losses would have been £575k but owner wrote off half a million off the outstanding loan to the club, which is still nearly £2.5m. Greenock Morton expect to lose money in 2019/20 due to ‘unforeseen costs and budgeted income not materialising'. Average attendances are around 2,700. Millions sweets entrepreneur and Morton benefactor Douglas Rae passed away in 2018. Despite his success in business, he was arguably best known as the saviour of his beloved hometown football club, Greenock Morton. Mr Rae stepped in at the eleventh hour to stop the Cappielow side going bust after it went into administration in 2001. A lifelong supporter and former director, he bought Morton to prevent it from disappearing forever and invested heavily in the club over the years. Elsewhere in Scotland, Alloa Athletic ma...