IT’S A LOCKOUT
EXCLUSIVE Clubs are warned fans may not return at all this season
SCOTLAND’S 42 senior clubs will be warned that football fans could be locked out of grounds for the entire season.
The SFA and SPFL Joint Response Group (JRG) have set up emergency Zoom meetings with teams across all four divisions over the next 72 hours.
Addressing concerns that fans could be locked out for another six months, senior figures now fear the possibility of no gate income at all for the whole of season 2020-21.
The full scale of the crisis facing clubs at all levels will be spelled out by the JRG when they convene divisional meetings to share and gather information. Lowland League clubs were also due to meet with the JRG last night, with Leagues One and Two next up.
In a statement on Wednesday, the JRG described the loss of fans as ‘catastrophic’ for clubs.
SPFL chief Neil Doncaster has described the situation as ‘grave’ and Hampden powerbrokers have now appealed to
the Scottish Government for a public bailout amidst growing fears clubs will go bust. At yesterday’s First Minister’s Questions, SNP MSP Stuart McMillan asked Nicola Sturgeon if she would consider setting up a ‘football task force’ to try to help the game ‘navigate a way throughout this pandemic which safeguards the future of clubs, particularly smaller community clubs’. The First Minister insisted she recognised the role sport plays in communities, saying: ‘We are working very closely right now with football authorities and football clubs. Officials are represented on the football Joint Response Group that was established to respond to the issues that the pandemic presented to football at all levels and we are happy to consider how best we can continue to work together to safeguard the future of all clubs in the SPFL and below across the country. ‘The Sport Minister wrote to the UK Government yesterday as well, seeking some engagement about how, collectively, we look at a financial recovery package for sport because, while their on-field activities often dominate, clubs at all levels make a really big contribution to individuals and communities. ‘We will continue to work closely with football to try to hopefully get the game back to normal and the rest of our society back to normal, as quickly as possible, but to provide as much support as we can in the interim.’ Any recovery package for UK sport would likely divert a percentage to Scotland under the principles of the Barnett formula. However, the JRG believe any release of public funds is weeks away. In the meantime, the Scottish Championship, League One and League Two campaigns are due to kick off on October 17. And last night a source told
Sportsmail that decisions on everything — including the viability of a 27-game lower-league season starting next month — are now up for discussion. While mothballing the lower-league season was discussed over the summer, clubs have now committed funds to re-signing players on legally binding contracts and are duty-bound to pay players.