Too many full-time clubs still living way beyond their means

IT IS no surprise that the recent impetus for change within the Scottish Football League comes from Livingston, the same source of irritation that first raised the prospect of 'SPL2' five years ago.

That agitation petered out, predictably, when the West Lothian club gained promotion to the Scottish Premier League at the end of season 2000/01. This time, the sabres are rattling as Livingston end their five-year stay in the SPL and are relegated to the First Division of the SFL. Here is a club - a fledgling one at that - which apparently is unable to survive outside the SPL. This says more about Livingston, and a minority of allies, than it does about Scottish football.

The clubs who complain about a lack of revenue in the SFL are voicing serious concerns, but there is no clamour of sponsors or broadcasters ready to lavish wealth upon them if only they can rid themselves of the shackles of the evil SFL. In particular, complaints about the lack of a television deal are hollow. The highlights package deal with Scottish Television which has just expired was not worth a fortune, and in the days before Football First the coverage of Scottish football below Premier level was of the blink-and-you'll-miss-it variety.

The idea that the SFL is holding back the more ambitious clubs is preposterous. Many of the members have survived for over 100 years through prudent financial management. The ones that have sailed close to the wind are generally those who have speculated recklessly to accumulate - and failed. With only one club promoted to the SPL each season, budgeting for success is a dangerous game to play.

Citing the loss of a title sponsor as a reason to damn the SFL and threaten player redundancies is another red herring. Under the arrangement with Bell's which has just expired, First Division clubs were entitled to £20,000 each per season. It is hardly a make-or-break figure for those who are making dire warnings about the future of the game - or more likely the immediate prospects of their club. The bottom line is that too many clubs live beyond their means. Even after the experience of four clubs going into administration, another going out of business, and big-spending outfits such as Hearts, Falkirk, Raith Rovers, and Partick Thistle surviving by the skin of their teeth, clubs continue to put their existence at risk by treating the suggestion of part-time football as the arrival of the grim reaper.

In 1980/81, when the Scottish game was on the cusp of one of its most competitive eras, there were only nine full-times senior clubs - Celtic, Rangers, Hearts, Aberdeen, Dundee United, St Mirren, Dundee, Motherwell and Hibs. The last three in that list were in the First Division, and Premier clubs Kilmarnock, Morton, Airdrie and Partick Thistle were part-time.

Today we have 23 full-time clubs. It is little wonder that ends do not meet - even though the SFL now enjoys an extra £1.5 million windfall every year in perpetuity as part of the SPL breakaway agreement in 1998.

It is a harsh and seemingly unpalatable truth that Scotland cannot sustain 23 full-time football clubs without there being casualties on the way.

Pearse Flynn has said already that relegation could see as many as half of his Livingston players being released. "Some are on SPL wages but haven't been giving SPL performances," he has said. In other words, the club's wage structure last season was wrong.

The Livingston owner's remark that "if the SPL is the Starship Enterprise then the SFL is Dusty Bin" would be enough to put a club official on a disrepute charge. If the SFL is negotiating with a new sponsor, he has done no-one any favours by rubbishing the organisation. His vision for a possible fourth governing body - which Scottish football needs like a hole in the head - is as unfathomable as the Ted Rogers television game show he refers to.

Taken from the Scotsman