Survival reliant on fans’ return
Wishaw’s warning as WOSL start looms
Boss Mark Daly admits Wishaw will struggle to survive if the return of fans isn’t green lit before the West of Scotland big kick-off.
Nicola Sturgeon announced that football’s fan return on September 14 has been postponed until at least October 5.
With the West of Scotland League set to kick-off just a few days later on October 10, Daly fears the Scottish Government’s decision could be a real hammer blow for non-league clubs.
With test events taking place last weekend during Celtic’s visit to Ross County and Aberdeen’s clash with Kilmarnock, the gaffer doesn’t understand why socially distanced supporters can’t be allowed in The Beltane to keep the club afloat.
He admits that a player pay-cut is the only thing that could keep the team alive if fans don’t return for the new campaign.
“We’ll struggle with no fans, definitely,” said Daly.
“The club can’t survive without fans – unless the players turned to me and said they were okay with not getting paid, which I very much doubt will happen.
“I wouldn’t expect that to happen anyway, but it’s going to be tough.
“I don’t see all the money that comes in from the gate, but it’s a big chunk of what we have coming in.
“I assume everyone is the same, it’s not just us.
“It’s not viable to not have fans for us. “We don’t have a seating area so we would just get the players to spread out, and sign in as they come in like they would in a restaurant for track and trace. “You could make it work.
“They have made everything else work, like training.
“We might not have massive amounts of fans but the hospitality side of things would be massive for us.
“We’ve got a lot of people looking to come in for that, and it would really help.”
He went on: “I just find it a bit strange that you can go to a restaurant but you might not be able to stand in our park on the opening weekend.
“If you give clubs like us the chance to have 100 fans, or Darvel in tier six, that’s a huge difference to us, Darvel or whoever it may be.
“It would be more of a benefit than 300 fans going to watch Celtic or Aberdeen.
“I don’t get the logic, what are they gaining out of that?
“For us at the end of the day we’ve just got to go with what we can do.”
Daly has called for better communication between the SFA, Scottish Government and the West of Scotland League.
He points to the pre-season friendly with Thorniewood as a prime example of the confusion, as the game was in doubt until the last second with the governing body holding off until matchday to appoint a referee.
“We are trying to do everything we can to make it work,” he added.
“It’s not just us a club, it’s everybody across the league and in the West.
“We are all getting stuck with the same things and singing off the same hymn sheet.
“Speaking to other managers, we are all in the same boat.
“I appreciate it’s not the West [of Scotland League].
“They are obviously finding out new things as they go along.
“These things are passed down from the SFA, who get it from the Scottish Government; I appreciate there is a chain.
“Sometimes it gives you the impression, though, that the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing.
“I don’t think anyone is doing it deliberately, but the communication is poor.
“I’m not an avid fan of the old juniors, but if the old committee did this they would be getting kicked from pillar to post with the way everything has been sorted out.”