Government grilled over £55m bailout allocation

MSPs are demanding answers from the Scottish Government over their handling of the recent £55million bailout of sport. Lewis Macdonald, chair of Holyrood’s Health and Sport Committee, told Sportsmail that members have been intrigued by the decision to hand Scottish Rugby £15m in grants — with a further £5m available as loans — while awarding football only £10m in grants and an additional £20m in loans. Now he expects newly-appointed Sports Minister Mairi Gougeon to tell his cross-party panel why that was the case before they meet again next month. Macdonald, who also understands football’s frustration at a lack of guidance over the potential return of fans, laid out the line of questioning the committee had taken when previous Sports Minister Joe FitzPatrick was at the helm. He said: ‘What was striking was that half the grant funding was for rugby — and only a third went to football. That was quite surprising. ‘The minister’s officials confirmed that the football clubs eligible would not include the top 12 in the Premiership. ‘But they confirmed that around 200 professional and semi-professional clubs below the Premiership would be eligible. ‘When asked the same question about rugby, the official talked about the two professional teams in Edinburgh and

Glasgow. He didn’t suggest there was any other infrastructure of people relying on gate money. ‘This intervention package was understood to be helping clubs who have lost paying customers at the gate. ‘Quite a few committee members were struck by the fact that rugby was taking up half of this grant funding, more than was being made available to 200 football clubs.’ FitzPatrick had said that rugby’s need was greater, with examination of accounts and borrowings showing the game was in more immediate nature of a catastrophic collapse. Labour MSP Macdonald told Sportsmail: ‘He may be right. That’s what we’re hoping to find out. I think many football clubs would be surprised to hear that. ‘Peterhead, in my own region, made quite a few people redundant a few weeks ago. And I know that pattern is repeated across the country, to a greater or lesser extent. So many football clubs would say they were in grave danger of going under at this time. ‘Which is why they were keen to see the fans return — and also to see financial support from the government. If they can’t get fans back, clubs will be looking for grants.’ Although the post-Christmas lockdown has put plans for the return of supporters on hold, Macdonald said he understood complaints from within football about a lack of Holyrood guidance on further pilot events. ‘I think that’s fair comment,’ he said. ‘We’ve probed the question with the sports minister last week, asking why the pilots at Aberdeen and Ross County weren’t followed up. ‘We got very little explanation from the minister on what it was about the pilots that put them off. ‘If football people are saying that, privately, they find it difficult to get information out of the government, frankly I’m not surprised, given the committee’s experiences.’ In a letter sent to Gougeon yesterday, Macdonald asked: ‘The committee was struck by your provision of £15m in resource funding to rugby, compared with £10m to football and £5m to all other sports combined. ‘Your officials confirmed that far more professional and semi-professional clubs and players are affected by the loss of income in lower-league football than in rugby. ‘Can you explain why half of all resource funding in this package has gone to rugby, with so much less on a per-capita basis made available to the 200 or so football clubs outwith the Premier League?’

Macdonald confirmed: ‘We expect answers by the next committee meeting on January 12. The committee will regard the appointment of a new minister as an opportunity to perhaps draw the attention of the government to sport. ‘The reason the committee has launched their inquiry in the first place is we recognise that sport is not just a branch of entertainment. ‘It’s a significant employer, often in towns where those jobs are really important. ‘It’s also a source of encouragement and something positive for people, in difficult times, to be able to support their local club. ‘Taking sport is good for people’s physical and mental health. But so is following sport, in difficult times. ‘We do need to see sport given more attention and more support.’