Clubs feeling financial pinch
Third Lanark, bless, were the club that died of shame.
The departure of the Hi-Hi from this mortal coil was spectacularly swift, dragged to the grave in 1967, just six years after finishing third in what was the top division in the land in those days.
In fact, in 1961 they even scored 100 goals in a crazy, life-on-the-edge season which had their fans looking like they had just come off the Cresta Run on a luge.
They were finally killed off by some scandalous mismanagement, mischief and financial high jinks by the chairman Bill Hiddleston - among others.
They were even subject of a Board of Trade inquiry which discovered, among other shenanigans, that Hiddleston was ordering stone chips for his driveway and charging them to the club.
It was actually the road to ruin he was preparing.
Oh, what a shock it was. Football clubs in those days seemed to have a cloak of immortality but here was a proud Glasgow side evaporating before our very eyes.
It was an awful shame. We were well advised to brace ourselves for further grief.
Football clubs, as supporters of Clydebank and Airdrie and Gretna came to find out, had soft underbellies.
In the mid-nineties I filed a series of reports for BBC Scotland's Friday Sportscene programme called 'Football at the Crossroads' in which warned of the impending crisis for our game.
Crossroads? We may have driven up a cul-de-sac.
Listen to me. Scottish football is creaking at the seams.
The January Sale sign at Ibrox was a massive reality check - the final demand in red print that comes through your letterbox and makes you dive behind the couch.
Stranraer are in such a perilous state that every new dawn is a bonus. It's fairies they need at the bottom of their garden, not ferries.
At least two Scottish Premier League clubs are seriously manning the ramparts and pulling up the drawbridge at the financial onslaught. Reserve teams abandoned, player employment slashed.
A caller to BBC Radio Scotland's Your Call programme suggested Inverness Caley Thistle should make a move for Owen Coyle of Burnley.
How distant from reality can you be?
Why would he hit reverse gear in his career because that, my friends, is exactly what he would be doing?
Coyle is on the escalator to the top and the Inverness board would be throwing themselves off the Kessock Bridge if they had to match his Burnley pay packet.
Celtic fans screaming for a big money signing from the Premiership had better explain to Gordon Strachan how he bridges the wages gap.
One target was already earning £40,000 a week MORE than the Parkhead club could offer him.
Many moons will come and go before a superstar of real note - a Larsson, a Gascoigne, or a Laudrup - graces our top league again.
The days of wine and roses are gone, replaced as one observer once remarked, with those of whine and neurosis.
There will still be days in the sun, of course - or nights under the floodlights to be more exact.
For example, Kilmarnock's 11,000-plus attendance for the Scottish Cup tie against Ayr United.
But three days later less than half that number of folk turned up to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the birth of Robert Burns at Rugby Park as Killie played Hamilton.
Kilmarnock do everything in their power to oil the box office. They give tickets to schools and offer incentives for family season tickets.
But still the stands are as open and bleak as the Fenwick Moor itself.
This weekend St Mirren take the wrapping off their brand new stadium, and here is a club debt-free and perhaps in a healthier state than any in the land.
They did that by cutting their cloth accordingly...and getting lucky with the timing of their sale of the old place to a supermarket chain.
Others don't have that card to play.
These are treacherous times, and the storm is wilder than some seem to understand.
Remember Third Lanark...and keep praying.
"Tell them who you are and what you are about," they said. To be honest, there are days when I struggle to remember myself. Forty years toiling at the coalface of football journalism does that to you. But I have reason to believe that I have reached the heady heights of the title of Football Correspondent of BBC Scotland which gives me a renown, in Scottish terms, of somewhere between Alex Salmond and the deep fried Mars Bar.
© MMIX~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~01~RS~)
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This blog was a bit boring, but it is of some relevance. Having recently watched Rangers and Celtic play I can see how the football is suffering from the financial struggles that this league faces. The Old Firm are the worst they have been for many years and a Celtic team that will win the SPL with the squad that they possess is very poor. Nevertheless, it gives hope Aberdeens, the Dundee Uniteds and the Hearts' (until the Old Firm steal all their players because there is no affordable quality out with the SPL).
Chick, I'm a bit confused though - one of your most recent blogs was about how great the SPL was shaping up? This blog (back to your 'dismal outlook' best) would suggest that the future is anything but bright...
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I think it would be fair to suggest that the SPL is dying because the English Premiership is pricing everybody else out the market. This is obvious in other leagues throughout Europe too. Maybe it's time Micheal Platini stepped in and capped their wages?
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I think you miss the point jwn007.
The financial crisis is hitting all levels of Scottish Football, and all clubs are struggling one way or the other.
Perhaps the financial gap between the terrible two and everyone else is reducing in terms of pound notes, but bridging the gap is infinitely more difficult now.
This is not a chance for Aberdeen and Utd unless their boards are foolhardy and chuck their cash to the wind - its a time to hope that enough of Scottish Football survives this mess to allow for a meaningful league structure in the future.
Scottish Football is not alone here - I hear that 2 Championship clubs in England could well be in Admin before the end of March. As for the lower leagues...
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Once again Chick you have managed to go all the way through your blog without naming names. It is easy to say St Mirren are debt free, but proper journalism to name the clubs who are in serious trouble. I will take your reluctance to name one of them as a fear on your part that you may be summoned to explain your actions in front of the master!!!
The SPL, like all other leagues in the world, is struggling and I think most of the teams are coping pretty well. If you look at Falkirk, Hamilton, Dundee Utd you will see teams that have been run with excellent financial prudence and are now in a better position to ride out the storm.
The EPL is on the verge of implosion. Interest in their product is waining and as the current depression bites further into peoples finance then the luxuries have to go, Sky Sports, Movies etc are a luxury and an expensive one at that. No subscription fees then puts Sky in trouble as it has done with Setanta and it is highly likely that the next TV deal will not be in the same ball park as this one. Couple that with the waining sponsorship deals that teams outside the big 4 can attract then you are looking at the mediocre English teams folding and with that a redress in salaries, transfer fees and also a reliance on home grown talent.
If there are clubs in the SPL in dire straights, tell us who they are, don't hide behind the mic, stand up and be a journalist and not a lap dog!!!
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All doom and gloom and it's nothing new as we've been hearing for years how Scottish Football is nearing meltdown but it never has. I personally think that if it came to the crunch and a team was in dire straits the fans would help out.
You haven't really said in this blog what the problems really are or more importantly what we should do about it. I know it's a slow week but you must surely have something more interesting to write about that will cause debate.
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Chick,
Sportscene was great last night with some cracking goals and exciting games.
These goals and exciting games don't need big star names. The SPL can bring on scottish players and be entertaining.
St Mirren has a new stadium and a half decent team, so chin up mate it's not all doom n gloom.
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There are positives and negatives in the Scottish game, why Chick do you focus only on one at a time??
We are operating in a new financial reality, where Scottish football will never be able to match the EPL or Spanish leagues.
We just have to come to terms with that and deal with it accordingly.
At this moment in time I would say the Scottish game is probably healthier now than it has been for a long long time. With the exception of Rangers that is.
Celtic are financially solid, and have regular Champions league football. There is no Larsson, but we have some hope in young players that have a lot of promise. The likes of Crosas, McGeady and Brown could become very good players with a bit of graft and luck.
Other teams such as Dundee Utd and Aberdeen are playing good football, with teams full of young Scottish players.
Celtic are not as strong as they were a few years back, but Utd and Aberdeen are better, so the gap is closing. These games, which were once guarateed winners for Celtic are now tough contests.
The national team is improving as a result.
The future for Scottish football is paying less in wages, but producing are own players who at the right time will get sold to EPL clubs for over-inflated prices and the process continues.
Occassionally we will get an absolute gem.
This is good for Scottish football and great for the national team.
Rangers have their own issues to deal with, they will NOT get financial investment and need to be run more prudently from now on.
The concerns for me are the empty stadia - surely giving free tickets away to get the punters in, and advertising Scottish football to Scottish kids is the way to do it?
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kirkcaldybhoy: its well known which clubs are in financial trouble. If you really want to know play Football Manager and see what are the total loan amounts secured on each Club. Its easy then to see how much certain clubs are struggling based on attendances and TV revenue.
That said, there are simply too many clubs in Scotland with too small a population to support them. That combined with the Rangers/Celtic monopoly, and the lure of the EPL is slowly killing the game in Scotland.
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The reason why so few people attend SPL games are simple:
1). The climate.
2). The cost in a credit crunch & recession.
3). The poor transport infrastructure in
Scotland.
4). The poverty of truly entertaining
football.
5). If you don't support the Old Firm, forget
about the league.
6). A minority of drunken neanderthal fans
who belong in a zoo.
No mystery.
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Another week passes and another week Chick has ignored Rangers' financial situation. Come on Chick, gives us your thoughts.
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Cryotek- you are missing my point. I know who they are but for some reason known only to himself Chick is very reluctant to name them.
WHY?
Read Shabba1888's comment, this has never been discussed, why.
As I said it is easy to point to a nice new stadium when the REAL story is the collapse "possibly" of one of the UK's biggest clubs.
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Are Rangers and/or Celtic really in so much trouble? I live in Edinburgh so tend to hear more about Hibs and Hearts. From an external point of view I still see Rangers and Celtic recovering from there crazy periods in the 90's when they spent wildly and took loans out to finance it. Since then obviously its been better for them and Scottish football that they have had to use there Academies more instead of buying players.
If the financial situation was that bad they wouldn't have spent at all during the summer, and they would have been selling players left, right and centre this month?
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Nup, dont buy into this at all.... just because there are are a few clubs struggling dosnt mean the death of our league.
Thinking back to the late 80's and 90's and the only thing thats drastically different are that Rangers are not spending silly money anymore.
Every other club is still doing its own thing... the best thing for the league, would be that the gap between the old firm and the rest gets even closer, so that more fans of these clubs are coming through the turnstyle.
Sure, its not the premiership, but hey that is a league that is shaping up to be a franchise league, with the russias versus the americans with the middle-east thrown in... eventually these guys will get bored, the same way as the next TV deal will be far reduced.. and things will get back to normal, and when all those scottish fans continually looking at the greener grass down south come back to their roots the better we will be for it!
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JWN007's comments seem a little bit harsh on both Chick and the Old Firm.
I think in Chick's previous blog he was simply commenting that the SPL had become much more competitive. Many of the other clubs are now prepared to challenge the old firm with positive play, and that challenge was making for an exciting season. Before, when the old firm had more money and could afford a better quality of player than they can now. The other teams couldn't really take an aggresive approach as that usually would result in a heavy defeat.
Finances have become increasing tight in football, and this is reflected in the drop in the standard of players in the SPL.
Of course Celtic & Rangers cherry pick players from within the SPL due to financial constraints. But so do the other clubs. The likes of Hearts, Aberdeen, Dundee Utd and Hibs, infact all football teams, buy players from smaller clubs. The bigger the club, the greater the financial clout. Add that to players who are driven by the size of their pay cheque, on not the club's crest on their chest. Players heads are easily turned.
It might be infuriating but it's the nature of the beast...we all have to deal with it.
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Third Lanark go out of business shocker!!
Thanks for that Chick 'Scottish football' really is in a sorry state eh!
I suppose 'at least two Scottish League Clubs manning the ramparts' is as close as you are ever likely to come to blogging about the financial mismanagement of Sir David!
And how will the very real possibility of St Mirren being relegated impact on their position as the healthiest club in the land?
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I'm gutted that a part of my licence fee goes towards this.
The funny this is that I think, this week Chick, you actually make a reasonably good point, however you seem determined to ruin it with a bizarre writing style.
"Listen to me"?! How about you try and listen to some of the commenters on this and previous articles, since there has been a good deal of constructive critisism that you could do with taking on board!
The problems of Scottish Football are symptomatic of the wider economic climate, so, to a certain extent, clubs will just have to grit their teeth and bear it.
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When I worked at Football365, Daily Mail sports writer Harry Harris once lambasted us for "wasting valuable web space". Now I think I understand what he meant.
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Of course, we mocked Harris at the time. What did he think we were going to do? Fill up the web? Happy days.
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Have to admit Chick's blog is beginning to grow on me a bit. After all, I read the thing every week.
Important that this is addressed and, in lieu of any decent contribution, I would just like to say that I really hope Hibs is not one of the two clubs he mentions.
The reason for tolerating the absolute tosh that we do is in the name of fiscal of responsibility.
If they're making a Gordon Brown-esque baws up of the whole thing then there will be Suicide on Leith.
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A reply to hfc-nufc -
I'm not sure your input is the only "decent contribution" to be honest!
However, that aside. I would think the Hibs are one of a few clubs in the SPL who's financial footing is particularly sound.
Hibs have sold some pretty talented home grown talent in very recent times, Brown (£4.5m), Whittaker (£1.8m), Thompson (£2.5m), and the Prodigal son, Riordan to name some well known players. Add in Murphy's move to Birmingham to the pot and that's £10m plus in revenue. I believe a chunk of that income has been used to invest and develop the stadium.
Where would Hibs be now if they could have held onto those player - top of the SPL - well yeah - a realistic maybe?
Hibs will be around for some time to come.
I don't think the same can be said for your City rivals...Is it £17m in debt...it's not good if you are maroon!!??
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That's it folks. Blink and you'd miss it, That was scoop's analysis of the incredible financial turmoil situation at Rangers Football Club. Not like the BBC to miss a story. Off to watch Crimewatch now, but I'm sure they will all be Chelsea and Milwall fans.
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Chick you don't 'cut your cloth' , you cut your coat according to your cloth,
I've lost count of the ammount of BBC reporters who have made that mistake.
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606 is shut for the night, all off to the blogs!
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Actually Astottie you cut your cloth to suit your measure, must be about 100 people in internet land found that releveant, You could have at least put Wine and New Roses for the link title.
Tell me is there anything good at all in Scottish football?
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One point Chick has missed is to do with the majority of people in Scotland these days support the Old Firm.
For example "kirkcaldybhoy" this is the type of common case that happens up and down the country why does someone from the other side of Scotland support Celtic, or Rangers for that matter.
What chance do Scottish clubs have when the majority of fans are just glory hunters.
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scottish football.whatever
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Capetrib, sour grapes at all?
St Mirren BoD have very soundly; built an experienced SPL squad year on year, facilitated the building of a modern stadium with greater financial potential, financed plans for a modern training facility. They have managed all of this while ridding the club of a generation's worth of debt. SMFC now has no interest payments to make and a squad of players on short term contracts. The impact of relegation for SMFC, possible though unlikely, would be a lot less drastic than it would be for any other SPL club.
I may be mistaken but does the current SPL TV deal not expire at the end of next season? Is it not then replaced with a 4 year deal worth £50m more? Most economsists and financial analysts expect the recession to be over long before that deal comes up for renewal.
While it is a worry for Rangers fans that they cannot compete in the elite of the Champions League, surely it means a more competitive league here in Scotland.
Free children's tickets and a bigger SPL are surely the most sound long term plans to improve the current state of affairs.
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M3lm0th
for your information I was born in Glasgow, went to school in glasgow, worked in glasgow, parents still live i Rutherglen (glasgow), just because I have migrated myself East doesnt mean I am not allowed to follow MY local team. In case I am very much mistaken, we live in a democracy which allows us to make decisions for ourselves. Are you not allowed to support Celtic\Rangers\Man Utd if you live in Cnada, USA etc. If you are brought up with your family supporting a club then the chances are high you will support that club irrespective of your geographical location.
On another topic maybe if the other clubs provided something to attract the fans then maybe they too would benefit form larger gates and thus larger revenue. Lets take Dunfermline for example. 2 years ago they took 16000 to hampden, on an average gate of 6000...this happens every time a smaller club reaches a final, yet the old firm consistantly have the same large attendances give or take a one off game....now you tell me who are the glory hunters?
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I'm not sure if this is a good thing, but I only read Chick's blog each week to read the slagging off he gets from the scottish bloggers for his failure to confront important issues and his Rangers bias! haha
I always read the article and think "ok, alright" and then the blogs start and I think "Wow, if that's what's happening in Scotland, why didn't Chick mention it?" Hilarious great entertainment.
It makes me laugh that for the past few weeks he's taken a lot of stick for his failure to approach the Rangers financial crisis, and then today there is one line about it in an article about how the whole of Scottish football is affected. Fantastic! How does he do it each week?!
On the topic, it would seem to me that if the big 2 that have been killing Scottish football for so long due to the lack of competition get so weak that ur league becomes interesting again, it may just be the best thing to ever happen to Scottish football!
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Such great affinity for the west coast yet you choose Kirkcaldy in your name interesting. To be honest I'm only surprised you didnt tell us you were born in the Celtic boardroom.
As for attendances it wasn't so long ago that rangers (funnily enough it coincided with the time they were not doing so great) were playing to half empty stadiums and the same can be said of Celtic during rangers dominance in particular the 1990 season attendances were particularly low (same season you finished 3rd).
As for telling you who the glory hunters are I think your impassioned defence is surely enough to answer that question?
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To H-Larsson07,
Very sorry though I realise what it looked like I meant to say the opposite. That is, 'not having any decent contribution to make myself, I'll make this pretty insubstantial one instead'.
So what was meant to be self-deprecation came across as insulting everyone but myself. The best laid plans...
I do apologise if it came across that way.
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Chick, I think it is important that you start putting things into perspective. We are currently feeling the effects of a global downturn and some clubs feeling the pinch more than others.
Lets look at the positives, we have alot of good quality youngsters coming through and this can only be good especially at international level. England will soon feel the effects of astronomical signing on fees and wages and if I were supporters of these clubs I'd be concerned.
Rangers and Celtic will soon get decent standard players again. They never have been able to get amazing top drawer players since the Souness era anyway. Larsson was signed on the cheap and was not all that well known when he came to Celtic, Gazza was crocked at Lazio and Rangers took a gamble on him. Laudrup was struggling in Italy. Needless to say all three showed there class when they came here.
As for international side, this sounds good to me.
Gordon/Mcgregor
Hutton Berra Caldwell/Mcmanus Wallace
Burke Brown Thomson Fleck
Fletcher Boyd
There is plenty of others as well, we could go on. It ain't that bad. I've even omitted Darren Fletcher.
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Chicocrunch,
Football began as a game the people enjoyed, and until the relatively recent past, Scottish players played for Scottish teams. And we all enjoyed it and did not need to pay through the nose to watch it. There are fans all over the country who play the game, whether at a good level or not, (and I am brilliant at 5s by the way) because they actually enjoy it. Football may well return to its more humble financial roots in the community rather than in financial wealth of the so-called free market and it might be no bad thing. If some players earn a bit less than their currently hugely inflated salaries, and obscene transfer fees became a thing of the past then how many fans would really feel distraught about that? Does Kaka play any better because of his price or his salary? Let's try getting the competition back to being the stuff of sport and not of the chequebook. Since you bring Burns into this - "the rank is but the guineas stamp". Would this now, in these impoverished times, be judged the boardroom "biscuit tin" mentality or can we not (amidst this current panic bourne of reality redistribution), grasp something more profound that resonates through our culture for good reason? I rest my case, Mr Journoblog of the people.
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Chick,why not face facts.
Scotland`s second biggest club may be going to the wall due to 20 years of gross financial misconduct,when are you going to grasp the nettle and write an article on the subject.
Will you ever ask a serious question of a certain chairman?Or will you continually use your column and position in the media to publicise his views to a less than captive audience.
Please Chico,surprise us all and ask some difficult questions.
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Not sure why my comment broke house rules.
I was just sticking up for kirkcaldybhoy against what I thought was extremely unfair criticism by m3lm0th.
I couldn't understand why he thought it so unusual that a Celtic fan might move away from Glasgow but continue to support Celtic.
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Completely agree with you, Chick. People are generally not aware of how large the financial gulf is between Scottish and English teams.
On a similar note to your Owen Coyle comment, I've heard people suggesting Dundee United should sign the likes of Leroy Lita from Reading. Or that "surely we can match what Cardiff are paying Willo Flood". Believing that Scottish teams have that sort of financial clout is so far from the truth.
Gordon Strachan said this week that Celtic nowadays can't compete with "Hull or Stoke City" for wages so I find it hard to see how they will be able to continue to compete in Europe in the same way as they have over the last few seasons.
The days of SPL teams making big money signings, eg. Robbie Winters to Aberdeen £1.2m, Danny Griffin to United £600K are long gone and should never have really happened.
And as for the Old Firm, I worry about how they'll be able to sustain a position of being anything of a credible European force in the forseeable future.
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