The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Staggies chief fears worst is yet to come
With the costs of coronavirus testing and lack of income from gate receipts, there is growing uncertainty over whether the bottom two divisions, and even the Championship, whose clubs are due to meet for talks today, will go ahead next season.
“I am very worried for lowerleague football, part-time clubs and clubs particularly that rely on gate receipts,” MacGregor told BBC Radio Scotland’s Sportsound.
“I was horrified when I heard the Championship might consider playing half a season.
“These things do worry me because we have a responsibility as 42 clubs to stick together and make sure everyone gets through this traumatic period.
“I think the worst is yet to come. I think we will have a tsunami of unemployment and mental issues and big things to deal with. Whether people can afford to see football is my concern.
“We need to get together as 42 clubs and find a way that football survives.”
MacGregor was encouraged to hear SFA chief executive Ian Maxwell insist football in August was likely.
He added: “I think we’ll be fanless until maybe Christmas and then we’ll find a way.”
Ayr chairman Lachlan Cameron has stressed his Championship club and others at his level would need financial assistance to play next term.
“We just want to play football but we can’t unless we have some sort of financial package,” he said. “Playing behind closed doors is obviously not ideal but if it could get the players working again then we would all be up for that.
“The problem is the majority of the income from the Championship and below comes from gate money. So we can’t possibly play without help from somewhere else, whether that comes from the SFA or SPFL via Fifa and Uefa or the Scottish or UK governments.
“We can’t afford to pay players the wages we normally pay without gate income.
“If we tried to do that some clubs would just revolt and not play or some clubs would go into administration sooner than you think.”