SFA chief Stewart Regan: We can't financially prop up clubs in trouble.. but we can offer guidance and support

21 Jun 2013 08:40

Hugh Keevins

FOOTBALL boss says it would not be right for the SFA to rescue individual clubs in peril.

STEWART Regan admits he’d love to go into the SFA’s wallet and give Hearts the money to make their problems disappear.

And the chief executive would happily do the same for Dunfermline rather than have fans spend the summer worrying if they’ll still have a team to support when the new season begins in August.

But he can’t.

What Regan can do is assume the role of a counsellor and offer practical help to a game suffering from the consequences of its addictive personality.

The symptoms are now well chronicled and easy to spot.

It begins with money being spent that clubs don’t actually have and ends with a knock on the door from Bryan Jackson – the administrator who has overseen enough insolvency events to be thought of as Scottish football’s bankruptcy doctor.

Now those chairmen who’ve owned up to a weakness for excess have asked Regan for help and he’s set to put his organisation to work on dismantling the disorder.

He said: “It would be nice if the SFA had a bottomless pit of money and could make everything better for those in distress.

“But we can’t be seen to be rescuing individual clubs. It wouldn’t be right to underpin the finances at clubs when our funds have to be devoted to the whole game.

“The SFA has a lot of mouths to feed, such as refs’ wages, coaching initiatives, the women’s game and many more causes.

“But we do appreciate the situations at Tynecastle and East End Park follow on from Rangers last summer.

“And it’s sending shockwaves across the whole of Scottish football.”

The irony is the administrator is at two of our most famous clubs just a week before the formalisation of the SPFL which is supposed to herald a new dawn for the game in this country.

But Regan doesn’t see the hardship in Edinburgh and Fife as the reason to feel embarrassed by trumpeting a new tomorrow when yesterday is still a harrowing memory.

He added: “It doesn’t help when clubs go into administration.

“It signals a game that’s not in good shape, financially speaking, and that doesn’t appeal to prospective commercial partners.

“But the financial problems underline the need for change.

“The formation of the SPFL, with one governing body instead of two, is all about reinvigorating the game.”

Regan visited Elgin on Wednesday night to speak to Highland League representatives about the merits of a pyramid system.

He told Record Sport: “I’m here to spread the good news,” before returning to his office at Hampden yesterday. There was a temptation to ask: “What good news?” when Stewart revealed his location and intention.

Everyone from Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond to fans with collection buckets have mobilised to see if they can stop the door closing at Tynecastle.

Trade creditors, 50 in number, have been stalled from preventing a successful exit from administration at Dunfermline, where kids in the street can now tell you what the letters CVA stand for.

Internal war rages at Kilmarnock where the business group who want to oust Rugby Park chairman Michael Johnston from office say they have a plan to remove £9million worth of debt in five years.

And who could swear that will be the end of the financial chaos as the game appears to have turned into a fiscal basket case?

Common sense has now prevailed and the realisation has dawned that, with the aid of the SFA, prevention is better than cure.

Regan said: “I come from a business background and know you can’t spend more money than you earn. You create major problems if you try to do so.

“The key learning that has to come from all of this financial distress is living beyond your means is no longer an option.

“Some of our clubs have over-stretched themselves and it’s the supporters I feel sorry for. All they want is to see their team on the park and all they’re getting is worry over the future in some cases.

“Spending big is fine when there’s money pouring in at the top end of the game from television deals and the rest.

“But when income streams slow down and clubs spend at the same rate as they did in the good times you get problems.

“Club chairmen are now coming round to that way of thinking and that’s why they’ve spoken to us and enlisted the SFA’s help.”

All 42 senior clubs will meet at Hampden next Thursday to appoint an SPFL chief executive, construct a seven-man board and give names to the four divisions.

From this distance it looks like the re-arrangement of the deck chairs on the Titanic just before it hits the iceberg. Or, if you like, before the s**t hits the fan.

But Regan won’t have negativity.

He said: “This is a significant moment in the game’s history.

“I’m not the type of person to dwell on negativity. My glass is always half full.

“The creation of the SPFL will be a real milestone for Scottish football. It’s taken two and a half years of planning from myself, David longmuir at the SFL and the SPL’s Neil Doncaster to bring the new, unified set-up into being.

“And it’ll only be good news for Scottish football when the plan is signed off next Thursday.

“It will really modernise the game and bring more meaningful matches in a more effective and businesslike environment.”

If Regan can pull that one off, and bring the spendaholics to heel, he’ll have deserved the
kind of credit that doesn’t bring the game into disrepute.

Taken from the Daily Record