Doncaster happy with joker card

SPFL chief comfortable with champions missing league game to face Inter, finds Graeme Macpherson

NEIL Doncaster, the SPFL chief executive, says he is “relaxed” about the ruling that will see champions Celtic take no part in the second weekend of the new Ladbrokes Premiership season.

The SPFL grants each club a “joker” that allows them to opt out of fixtures should they wish to do so, usually to secure a more glamorous, lucrative pre-season friendly. Next month Celtic have foregone what would have been their first home league game of the season on August 13 to take on Internazionale in Limerick as part of this summer’s International Champions Cup.

Allowing clubs to miss a league game to play friendlies would seem to weaken the brand at a time when Scottish football is trying to restore its reputation, but Doncaster admits there was a need to occasionally bow to financial need.

“There’s always a balance between the sporting rules of a competition and finance,” he said. “We have to be aware of that balance, and the importance of finance to the game. We’re not in the luxurious position of being able to be entirely pure about it.

“Ultimately the rules exist to give clubs the opportunity to use the joker for one match, and it’s absolutely within their rights to do that. If they believe it’s the right thing for them to do, particularly financially, then all credit to them. I’m entirely comfortable with it.

“The fact Celtic have been invited into that tournament alongside some pretty big names is credit to them. That reflects well on the league and I’m pretty relaxed.”

Figures released by the SPFL show attendances across all four divisions rose marginally last term from 4.12 million to 4.18 million, although there is still no consistency among clubs on how such figures are recorded.

“There isn’t a uniformity, and Scottish football does itself down relative to some other leagues,” Doncaster said. “Most other leagues report attendances as tickets sold, whereas not all of our clubs do that. A number of clubs report attendances as numbers through the turnstiles, so in fact they’re underreporting relative to other leagues what the actual attendances are.”

Part of the increase in total attendance is down to the continuing popularity of the Premiership play-offs. The agreed three-year moratorium on changing the format has now expired, and, although having a one-off final has been spoken about, imminent change is not planned.

“We’ve seen how well the single play-off final works in other leagues,” he said. “Here it is complicated by the fact it was part of a settlement. But never say never. You have to be open-minded about how you can improve anything. The competitions sub-committee will be looking at the play-offs and whether there’s a better way of doing it, but you wouldn’t change it for this season.

“The natural change, given that we sold the rights of the play-offs til 2020, would perhaps be in the next broadcast cycle. But there’s no reason why you couldn’t do it next year if a desire was there from all clubs to do that.”

With Rangers set to return to the top division four years after their financial implosion, Doncaster felt Scottish football had recovered from its impact.

“There’s no doubt a lot of financial damage has been caused to a number of clubs as a result of what happened in 2012 and the events that followed,” he said “But I do believe the game has healed remarkably well, and that’s down to the robustness of the game, the supporters and the clubs. They all deserve credit for the way they’ve pulled together.

“We shouldn’t underestimate the pain some clubs have gone through with the loss of Rangers’ support in particular.

“Equally I think it is right to recognise the huge financial good the Rangers support have brought to the lower league clubs on their journey through the divisions.

“That has transformed the finances of certain clubs in the Championship, League One and Two, so it’s not without an upside but the game in this country has proven itself to be remarkably robust in the face of those challenges and I think we can look forward with massive confidence.”

The fact Celtic have been invited to that tournament alongside some pretty big names is credit to them