McLeish fears crisis will ‘wipe out’ smaller clubs
‘Hearts can still stay up’
HENRY McLEISH has urged the Scottish FA and SPFL to “show real mettle” during the coronavirus crisis and work with politicians to come up with the finances to save clubs from being wiped out.
The former First Minister, who published a review of Scottish football a decade ago, is concerned a prolonged period without football could lead many historic clubs to go out of business.
The 71-year-old played for hometown team East Fife after leaving school and fears his old side could be one to struggle without the vital revenue generated by home games in the coming weeks. McLeish accepts the health and safety of the nation is the priority but believes football’s governing bodies have it in their powers to help ease the difficulties many clubs are expected to face.
He said: “Setting aside the bigger consequences for the country, this is an absolutely vital point. My concern is clubs, especially in League One and League Two, they don’t compete every week for success, they are doing it for survival.
“Finances are very tight and my real fear, if this is a prolonged crisis, is a lot of those clubs will be in dire financial straits. It could wipe out clubs.
“I suspect the two football authorities will have to look at some kind of funding. In each community they will try and help themselves. My own club, East Fife, has a tremendous history but dwindling gates.
“They have to be looked after, like other clubs, over a period, and that means the SPFL dipping into their own pockets to create this fund and, through other areas like crowd funding, we have to try and get a way forward.”
facing the authorities in Scotland and Europe as a whole, because we’re trying to squeeze a quart into a pintpot,” he said. “No matter what you do, one decision is going to have a knock-on effect. Those in charge need to accept that they might not get the ideal outcome from their own perspective, but it’s going to take a bit of collaboration and a bit of understanding to come up with a pragmatic solution that works for everyone. That’s what I was trying to suggest when I put my tweets out.”
Regan supports the stance currently being taken by Maxwell and Doncaster, where they have limited their public proclamations on their next move to the statements they have co-signed through the joint response group.
“I think it’s a good idea to try and see what the potential solution could be across Europe,” he said. “There are obviously European fixtures to consider, the Champions League, the Europa League, the European Championships, not least the play-offs which involve Scotland and then the tournament that is in 12 cities across Europe.
“There are some big, big decisions that require to be dealt with, and it might make sense if there’s a solution that works across all 55 countries.
“So, I think it’s sensible to see what the bigger picture is before you finalise what is going to happen in your own league. I can see them sitting on their own plan until they have heard from everyone else tomorrow, and then seeing what the best solution is for Scotland.”
NEIL McCANN believes relegating Hearts without completing the rest of the season would be wrong – because avoiding the drop as Dundee manager proves so much can change in the run-in.
McCann was appointed interim manager at Dens Park in April 2017 when the Dark Blues were on a dismal run of seven straight defeats but he steered his side to a 10-place finish. That experience tells him too much could still happen at the bottom of the divisions for the SPFL to take current league placings as teams’ finishing positions.
“Hearts are down there and people talk about the form they’re in,” he said. “Everybody thinks their form suggests they should go down and they should be punished. But there’s nothing to say they couldn’t gear up and get themselves out of trouble.
“There are going to have to be some serious decisions made and you’re never going to keep everybody happy.”