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Football Finances - Scottish Championship


Fawlty Towers
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This is the point of the year when clubs normally have to submit their accounts (usually to 31st May in the previous year) so here is what we have for the current Championship clubs (to 31st May 2019):

Alloa - £20K profit

Arbroath - £20K loss (In League One - promoted)

Ayr - Due by 31st March

Dundee - £1.8M loss (In Premiership - relegated)

Dundee Utd - £3.8M loss

Dunfermline - £700K loss

ICT - £900K loss

Morton - £75K loss

QoS - £60K profit

Partick Thistle - £50K profit

Not very pretty and makes you wonder about how long some clubs can remain full time in this division (ourselves included).

Edited by Fawlty Towers
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35 minutes ago, Fawlty Towers said:

This is the point of the year when clubs normally have to submit their accounts (usually to 31st May in the previous year) so here is what we have for the current Championship clubs (to 31st May 2019):

Alloa - Not submitted

Arbroath - £20K loss

Ayr - Not submitted

Dundee - £1.8M loss

Dundee Utd - £3.8M loss

Dunfermline - £700K loss

ICT - £900K loss

Morton - Not submitted

QoS - £60K profit

Partick Thistle - £50K profit

Not very pretty and makes you wonder about how long some clubs can remain full time in this division (ourselves included).

It is striking though that clubs that are trying to live within their means are the ones that struggled.

 

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I think we would have had some transfer income included. May would be before Fitzpatrick, but did we not get sell on fees for Lindsay and/or Hendry ? The next 12 months will be very telling as we appear to have been splashing the cash, along with 3 (and counting) changes of board and asset transfers. Still good to know that we were on relatively sound financial footing up to that point

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That would include our parachute payment, money from Celtic being in Champions League plus we got Celtic in the League Cup then the 2 games against Hearts in the Scottish Cup.

I have edited the original post as Alloa and Morton have submitted their accounts now. Ayr's accounts run to end of June so they are not due to submit until end of this month.

One thing that slightly shocked me is the number of clubs who have what seem to be quite small amounts of cash in the bank. What happens if there is a really harsh winter and they have several weeks without a home game?

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 3/3/2020 at 10:21 AM, Fawlty Towers said:

That would include our parachute payment, money from Celtic being in Champions League plus we got Celtic in the League Cup then the 2 games against Hearts in the Scottish Cup.

I have edited the original post as Alloa and Morton have submitted their accounts now. Ayr's accounts run to end of June so they are not due to submit until end of this month.

One thing that slightly shocked me is the number of clubs who have what seem to be quite small amounts of cash in the bank. What happens if there is a really harsh winter and they have several weeks without a home game?

Prophetic last sentence. We are all about to find out.

 

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On 3/1/2020 at 4:36 PM, Fawlty Towers said:

This is the point of the year when clubs normally have to submit their accounts (usually to 31st May in the previous year) so here is what we have for the current Championship clubs (to 31st May 2019):

Alloa - £20K profit

Arbroath - £20K loss (In League One - promoted)

Ayr - Due by 31st March

Dundee - £1.8M loss (In Premiership - relegated)

Dundee Utd - £3.8M loss

Dunfermline - £700K loss

ICT - £900K loss

Morton - £75K loss

QoS - £60K profit

Partick Thistle - £50K profit

Not very pretty and makes you wonder about how long some clubs can remain full time in this division (ourselves included).

 

Looking at this it seems to me that 3 or 4 teams could really struggle. ICT, Dunfermline, Dundee, Morton. 

United have a decent backer and the rest make small profits. The only saving grace for Scottish clubs if it drags on is most players contracts are up at the end of may.

Wider scope apart from Celtic (who have a massive surplus), Aberdeen and Hibs (with new backers), Hearts (Fans pledges) and County (who have McGregor bank rolling them) the rest may struggle if it goes on any longer than a couple of weeks.

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47 minutes ago, Lenziejag said:

Prophetic last sentence. We are all about to find out.

 

I was thinking about harsh winters but this situation is having the same impact. I was amazed to read the SPFL has no cash reserves! As we have already seen fans are trying to do what they can to help but there will be people who are suffering financially as well so tough times ahead it seems.

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I would be surprised if players' contracts have no break clauses that allow clubs to suspend contracts or reduce payments in extraordinary circumstances.  Footballers are no different to others who will have to suffer financial loss because of the pandemic.  Clubs' survival come before players' incomes.

Irrespective of any such clauses, players and other staff may take a long term view and reason that it is better to take a pay cut now than have no club to employ them in the not too distant future.  That attitude will be easier to adopt in smaller, part time clubs.

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I fully understand why we've shut down just now. The powers that be want to do everything they can to avoid a spike in infection. I just can't see the season finishing.

We're told to expect that the virus is likely to peak some weeks away. What I can't envisage this side of midsummer is a day when we can say it's ok to restart football. We'd either be in the height of the epidemic, approaching the height or barely at the tapering off stage. Besides it's highly likely that clubs will have players in isolation. Assuming that logic is sound then the sooner the SFA/SFL make decisions the better.  

It'll be an exceptionally worrying time for players out of contract in June just as it'll be particularly worrying times for some clubs with a high percentage of players in contract for next season. Clubs will definitely need time to plan ahead. That can't be done till decisions are made.

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Reading the literature on this infection, it appears that once you have been infected with Covid-19 you have a two week illness then you recover ***, but what they [the experts] are not so sure about is whether your immune system will 'remember' the infection and the chances of future reinfection become less. The worst case scenario is  the world population being infected and re-infected in a series of surges as people travel from country to country.    For example, China is worried that although their numbers of infection within the country are trending down, they have recently discovered cases of 'imported Covid-19' in Chinese nationals returning from Italy and Iran.

What my point is …. this might not be a case of:- 1) catching the virus, 2) getting through the relatively mild illness ***, and 3) moving on healthy with no chance of any additional re-infection. and this all happens during the summer months and everything has settled down again in time for a mid July start to the football season 2020 / 2021. To actually control this virus, we may have to wait for a vaccine to be developed, and that could be some time!

One of the positives is all of the G20 countries have the infection, so all of these countries will be working hard to fast track a vaccine for this strain of flu. So we might get a vaccine sooner rather than later.

*** The symptoms are minor if you are healthy.

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2 hours ago, eljaggo said:

I would be surprised if players' contracts have no break clauses that allow clubs to suspend contracts or reduce payments in extraordinary circumstances.  Footballers are no different to others who will have to suffer financial loss because of the pandemic.  Clubs' survival come before players' incomes.

Irrespective of any such clauses, players and other staff may take a long term view and reason that it is better to take a pay cut now than have no club to employ them in the not too distant future.  That attitude will be easier to adopt in smaller, part time clubs.

In no way wishing to be controversial, but your point above is worthy of debate.

I would be surprised if 'force majeure' was a clause in any current player's contract. Relegation clauses would likely be uppermost in our club's thinking.

I would imagine that as a result of the current situation - which will undoubtedly see several cases of players' contracts being in the courts (from Scottish football generally, not necessarily from Partick Thistle)  - 'force majeure' will hereafter become a standard clause in players' contracts.

Edited by Barney Rubble
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I am not normally in the know, but I can reveal exclusively from my mole in the SPFL  that the following decisions have been taken and will soon be announced:

1) The only fair way to finalise the league table is to order the teams based on how long it is since they last scored.

2)  Player of the Year will be awarded to the last player to score who has been contracted to a Championship team for the whole season.

3) Accordingly the league title and automatic promotion place are awarded to Partick Thistle, and the player of the season is Miles Storey (Brian Graham misses out as he spent the first half of the season at Ross County).

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2 hours ago, partickthedog said:

I am not normally in the know, but I can reveal exclusively from my mole in the SPFL  that the following decisions have been taken and will soon be announced:

1) The only fair way to finalise the league table is to order the teams based on how long it is since they last scored.

2)  Player of the Year will be awarded to the last player to score who has been contracted to a Championship team for the whole season.

3) Accordingly the league title and automatic promotion place are awarded to Partick Thistle, and the player of the season is Miles Storey (Brian Graham misses out as he spent the first half of the season at Ross County).

We're undoubtedly the form team. :thumbsup2:

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