THE CLAIM GAME

Anxious SPFL desperate for Government to KO the season »»Call-off will trigger insurance pay-outs that can save clubs

ANXIOUS Scottish clubs want the Government to abandon the football season this week – and save them from financial catastrophe.

Record Sport understands urgent talks are already underway between the SPFL and Holyrood as the coronavirus crisis deepens – with the national game facing the nightmare prospect of a fullscale sporting lockdown for more than four months.

And worried owners on both sides of the border are piling pressure on Prime Minister Boris Johnson and First Minister Nicola Sturgeon to take official action that would then allow them to claim for millions of pounds worth of emergency cash from insurance companies.

Only if the politicians decree the football season must be brought to an abrupt and immediate end can those “loss of earnings” policies be triggered.

And without that money, clubs up and down the country could be forced to go to the wall.

It is expected the PM will make a major announcement on the

issue this week but the football authorities in Scotland also want a stronger more decisive reaction from the Scottish parliament. Last week Sturgeon stopped some way short of ordering football to shut down, “advising” instead that any mass events involving more than 500 people should be scrapped. And her careful positioning has intensified fears throughout the football industry of an impending financial meltdown on an unprecedented scale. One top-flight chief executive, who wished not to be named, told Record Sport yesterday: “If our clubs are going to be in any position to survive without gate receipts for a period of around four months then the vast majority of them will only be able to do so by triggering their insurance policies and claiming for an interruption to business.

“But in almost all cases, these claims can only be made if the season is cancelled by government decree.

“If, on the other hand, the decision is made by the SFA or the SPFL then effectively the clubs would be held responsible for taking that action.

“The decision has to be taken out of football’s hands and as a matter of extreme urgency because only once it is made can the clubs attempt to protect themselves.

“The situation is increasingly bleak.

“Not all clubs are insured – and some that are can’t say with any certainty that their cover is even adequate.

“But what all of us know is that the Government and our politicians need to help us by leading the way.”

Talks are also ongoing between the SPFL and England’s Premier League as both bodies attempt to agree on a joint and uniformed approach to dealing with a potential cancellation of the current campaign.

They could face the choice of declaring the season null and void or of using the current league standings to determine winners and losers.