KILLIE FACING UP TO SEVEN-FIGURE LOSS

KILMARNOCK’S major shareholder Billy Bowie insists he is focused on steering the club through the coronavirus crisis — and not bringing down SPFL chief executive Neil Doncaster.

The Rugby Park club won their appeal last week against severe SPFL sanctions after they were handed a defeat against Motherwell due to Covid-19 regulation breaches. Along with St Mirren, Killie were also fined £40,000 but that figure has been reduced to £20,000, with £10,000 suspended until the end of the season, and the game against the Steelmen rearranged for February 10. After seeing league chiefs hammer Killie, Bowie — who revealed the club is forecasting a ‘seven-figure deficit’ — has stressed their focus will be on urging the Scottish Government to hand out funds to cashstrapped clubs. Asked if the Rugby Park board would pursue a change in the SPFL CEO, Bowie said: ‘This is something I feel will be up for discussion after we get through the pandemic. ‘We need to focus on the rest of the season and campaigning to the Government for funds for football clubs to survive. Yeah, we have expressed how we feel regarding the way we have been treated.

‘The main thing being we are a member club and they should have been supporting us rather than trying to hammer us for it, to put it in layman’s terms. ‘That will be for discussion further down the line but, just now, we have to keep the clubs pulling together and campaigning to the government to keep the game going.’ Speaking at an online Killie Trust event, Bowie went on: ‘Sadly to say, we are forecasting a seven-figure deficit. ‘Going forward, we have identified that there is going to be a cashflow shortage. We have our business interruption insurance claim that we’re hoping we can get an interim payment from to carry us through. ‘We’ve also agreed to seek for the government loan of £1million.’

Bowie also confirmed boss Alex Dyer has been handed funds for the January market. ‘We have approved a sum to Alex for an additional player,’ said Bowie.