SPL propose sanctions to prevent any Gretna repeat

Published on Thursday 20 November 2008 21:42

TOP-FLIGHT clubs which default on payments to their players or to the tax authorities could be subject to discipline by their own ruling body from next year, if proposals by the board of the Scottish Premier League (SPL) are agreed.

The board of the SPL has agreed to press ahead with plans to introduce new financial controls into their membership criteria, and their proposals will be put to the quarterly general meeting of their 12 clubs in January. A two-thirds majority will be required for any such proposal to be passed.

The wording of the proposals has yet to be finalised, and there have as yet been no discussions regarding what sanctions the SPL might take against offending clubs. Rather than taking a punitive approach, however, the league aims to adopt rules which help bring about an all-round improvement in clubs' financial stability.

"The new criteria will require all member clubs to provide additional financial information to the SPL prior to each season," Iain Blair, the league's company secretary, said. "No system of this nature is foolproof, but our aim is to ensure that all our clubs have the financial stability needed to complete any given season."

An SPL spokesman explained that the "additional financial information" they had in mind included the lodging of clubs' audited accounts and of any interim financial statements. The planned ruling on non-payment, he added, could include sums which were overdue to players and other employees, to HM Revenue and Customs, and to other clubs.

The proposals have been made by a working group which included several representatives of the dozen clubs. The group was set up in June, primarily as a reaction to the demise of Gretna FC, where the withdrawal of funding led to players and others going unpaid. At one stage, it looked as if Gretna would be unable to fulfil their fixtures during what turned out to be their first and only season in the SPL.

More recently, employees of Hearts did not receive their wages on time. Given the relative slowness with which Scottish football is administered, however, it is probable that many such temporary lapses would be resolved by the time an SPL panel got round to imposing sanctions.

Any agreed disciplinary procedures, then, appear more likely to apply to longer-lasting cases of financial difficulties. And, instead of being automatically punitive in such cases, the SPL appears willing to take a supportive approach if at all possible.

The sooner it learns of any problems such as those which affected Gretna, for example, the sooner the league might be able to offer assistance. There has been no discussion yet of the establishment of contingency funds to help bail out indebted clubs, but a conciliation service could be a lot easier – and of course cheaper – to implement.

Nor has there been any talk about introducing rules governing the probity of club owners. The suitability to run a club of individuals such as the former Manchester City owner Thaksin Shinawatra has been a burning issue in English football over the past couple of years, but the SPL spokesman said that nothing of that or a similar nature had been debated by the working party. So far at least, then, such issues will remain the subject of longstanding legislation by the Scottish Football Association, and of course in more extreme cases by the law of the land.