Chairman calls on top clubs to follow Germans

STENHOUSEMUIR chairman Iain McMenemy has urged Scotland’s top clubs to follow the Bundesliga’s lead by forgoing 10 per cent of their prize money to save teams from extinction.

Rangers’ Europa League rivals Bayer Leverkusen last week joined forces with Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund and RB Leipzig to contribute to a £18.3million solidarity fund for the top two leagues in Germany.

And with Scottish clubs facing a financial crisis due to the coronavirus pandemic, McMenemy believes a similar act of benevolence from the Premiership could protect 30 lower league side.

League Two part-timers Stenhousemuir have so far received just over £9,000 from the Scottish FA and SPFL since football was suspended on March 13.

McMenemy: “My real issue has been the money that has been offered around Scottish football.

“It’s been talked about that there was £4.5 million put in by the Scottish football authorities, that’s £1.5 million from the Scottish FA and £3 million distributed from the SPFL.

“That money has gone out through the normal distribution funds channel.

“Clubs like Stenhousemuir, out of that £4.5million we got just over £9,000 of that, that’s all.

“The top three (Premiership) clubs get £395,000 (from the SPFL) and we got £1,350. We’re sitting in the conference calls when they’re talking about this investment into Scottish football, incredibly frustrated that that’s the kind of money.

“I know that’s what we all have. The point I’m trying to make to them is that this is the most extraordinary of circumstances and we can’t get through it with very ordinary actions.

“We’ve got to treat to this differently, it can’t be business as usual in terms of payments.”

McMenemy, whose own club have earned plaudits for their community efforts to help vulnerable people during the lock down, added: “The Premiership alone talks 83 per cent alone of all money in Scottish football, 83 per cent.

‘If they even said we’d take 73 per cent, which is still a big chunk, they could save just about every other club in Scotland. You could save 20 or 30 other clubs just with that 10 per cent.

“I get the point that everybody is suffering and every pound potentially is a prisoner but other countries have done it, Germany have done it – they have come together and are trying to make sure they’re there for each other.

“Everybody is pulling together in society but Scottish football is just still plodding forward looking after our own self-interest and it’s different circumstances right now.”