Scottish Daily Mail

Sweet deal for a football club cost taxpayers

- By Graham Grant Home Affairs Editor

A FOOTBALL club is at the centre of questions over a £140,000 debt to the taxpayer and a conflict of interest involving SNP councillor­s and a charity.

League Two side Stirling Albion ran up a rent backlog at council-owned Forthbank Stadium.

However, even as the cashstrapp­ed authority has had to make redundanci­es – 150 last year alone – the club has seen the debt, in effect, written off.

Now we can reveal the coincidenc­es behind the deal.

By law, charities cannot be controlled by central government, but many councils have spun off some services into charitable ‘arm’s length’ external organisati­ons (ALEOs).

ALEOs are largely funded by their local authoritie­s, which retain influence by ensuring councillor­s, staff or nominees sit on the board of directors.

This ensures the bodies can act like private companies while enjoying the tax-free status afforded to charities.

Since 2007, Stirling Council’s Sports Village – including Forthbank Stadium – has been run by Active Stirling. The ALEO and charity receives a yearly management fee from the council (2014-15: £1.4million), plus £405,000 of other grants, mostly from the quango Sportscotl­and.

Active Stirling collects dues from Stirling Albion, the subtenant at Forthbank.

In 2009, the club withheld payments in a dispute over parking, racking up a backlog of £140,000. The council threatened to evict the team and force it into liquidatio­n. The club was then bought by a fans’ group. Chairman Stuart Brown said: ‘We are never going to be in a position to repay the amount we owe in cash. We need to repay it through… work in the community.’

The deal to make the debt disappear was agreed in 2011 and kicked in during 2013.

An Active Stirling coach moved to Albion with costs met by the club, which got taxpayer grants to help cover them. Each function the coach performs is given a value deducted from the cash backlog.

Under-12s can now watch the first team for free, with each youngster through the turnstiles equating to money off the pile too, as it is deemed to be ‘for the public benefit’.

In the meantime, the financial fortunes of Stirling Council and Stirling Albion have gone in opposite directions. As part of £6.3million of council cutbacks, Active Stirling’s fee from the council has been cut by £145,000, or 9 per cent.

But Albion’s total debts have dropped from £580,000 to £251,000, helped by two lucrative home matches against Rangers in 2012-13.

Accounts show it has doubled its bank balance to £175,000 and landed an £80,000 windfall last year after Sky Sports covered the club’s Scottish Cup replay v Inverness.

So despite having the cash reserves it said it would never have, Stirling Albion can trade profitably without repaying the debt owed to the taxpayer.

By coincidenc­e, secretary of the Stirling Albion Supporters Trust – which owns the club – is Jim Thomson, an SNP councillor; his Nationalis­t colleague Graham Lambie was a member too. The Trust appoints an executive board to make decisions about the day-to-day running of the club and it includes Jim Thomson, who also has shares in Albion. Both Mr Thomson and Mr Lambie were on the SNP-dominated council committee that approved the debt deal in 2011 – though they left the chamber during discussion­s to avoid acting on a conflict of interest.

Mr Brown told the Mail ‘every penny’ of the club’s debt would be repaid but said he could not comment further because the deal with the council was a ‘private arrangemen­t’.

Active Stirling said: ‘We work with a number of partners and are not in a position to comment on partners’ finances.’

A Stirling Council spokesman said: ‘Stirling Council and Stirling Albion have a long-standing and mutually beneficial arrangemen­t that the football club contribute­s to local communitie­s, through offering sports and fitness opportunit­ies, as in-kind payment for historical rent arrears.’

 ??  ?? Debt pact: Stuart Brown
Debt pact: Stuart Brown

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