SPFL in limbo again as Uefa resorts to strong-arm tactics

Threat of exclusion from lucrative European competitions hangs over Scottish clubs

Celtic chief executive Peter Lawwell also sits on the board of the European Club Association. Picture: John Devlin

Scottish football’s immediate future had been set to be resolved at the start of next week at an SPFL board meeting. There was a sense that opinion was moving towards agreement to call the league standings as they are now.

In other words, Celtic would be declared Premiership champions, Dundee United Championship champions and so on down the leagues.

The issue of relegation is slightly thornier. But, again, it was felt that the SPFL were preparing to confirm Hearts and others as relegated on account of being in last place when the football season was forced to stop due to the 
Covid-19 outbreak. They would then have to deal with Hearts owner Ann Budge’s threatened legal challenge if and when it came.

However, Uefa response to the Belgian Pro League’s decision to declare the current standings as final, with Club Brugge awarded the title, will have concentrated minds among Scottish football’s powerbrokers. Things are bad enough without being excluded from lucrative European competitions next season, as has been threatened.

What must also be remembered is the different hats worn by those such as Peter Lawwell, the Celtic chief executive. It is not only Uefa who have warned that abandoning the season should be a last resort.

Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin, European Club Association (ECA) president Andrea Agnelli, and Lars-Christer Olsson, president of European Leagues (EL) all signed a letter that became public yesterday. Lawwell sits on the executive board of the ECA, a role he landed earlier this season. Celtic, Rangers, Aberdeen, Motherwell and Aberdeen are all member clubs of the same association. These are hugely significant factors in terms of what happens next.

“We are confident that football can restart in the months to come – with conditions that will be dictated by public authorities – and believe that any decision of abandoning domestic competitions is, at this stage, premature and not justified,” said the joint letter from Uefa, ECA and EL.

“Since participation in Uefa club competitions is determined by the sporting result achieved at the end of a full domestic competition, a premature termination would cast doubts about the fulfilment of such condition. Uefa reserves the right to assess the entitlement of clubs to be admitted to the 2020-21 Uefa club competitions, in accordance with the relevant applicable competition regulations.”

It is a shot across the bows, all right. How often do we read stories about coefficient points in relation to Scottish football? I’s because they matter greatly to top-flight clubs in the form of potential solidarity payments. If Celtic, for example, do well in Europe, it’s good for business elsewhere.

So, it is not only Celtic and Rangers who will have had the frighteners put up them by threats to bar them from European competition. Others, including Motherwell, currently in line to quality for a Europa League place by finishing third, will have been disturbed by the news. As a member of the nine-person SPFL board, Alan Burrows, the Fir Park club’s chief executive, is one of the key players in this drawn-out drama.

Delight at the prospect of European football derived revenue is not shared by everyone, since only 12 of the country’s 42 clubs are entitled to it. Those teams below the Premiership get nothing.

“The top-flight clubs are always pushing this,” said an SPFL source. “It is huge to them and I can see why in terms of the cheques they get for the Champions League and the Europa League, which is a little bit less. It’s understandable if they will now want to protect that.”

Prior to Uefa’s latest intervention, there seemed to have been a growing acceptance in Scotland that the leagues would would end as they current stand. Belgium’s decision will only have served to embolden the SPFL board representatives, headed by chief executive Neil Doncaster.

Whether they will still take their lead from Belgium’s principled stand remains to be seen but seems unlikely.

The Belgian league reaffirmed their position yesterday – indeed they went so far as to criticise Uefa, ECA and EL for trying to exert pressure on leagues across Europe to complete the season.

A statement, following a conference call with Uefa, stressed “they (the directors) would not agree to an approach that forces leagues to continue their leagues in the current general health crisis, on pain of being excluded from next season’s European club leagues.”

The resultant financial fallout for clubs in Belgium will become clearer in time. It is likely Scottish clubs won’t want to risk losing European revenue – or at least top-flight clubs won’t.

The SPFL board includes three members from Premiership clubs – Burrows, Rangers managing director Stewart Robertson and Hamilton Accies’ vice-chairman Les Gray.

“I think the momentum had been there (to call the leagues),” said the source. “Alan Burrows said something the other day about needing to make a decision. So, I think they were moving towards doing that.

“I imagine they’ve spent today thinking: what on earth do we do now? They are probably now backing away from a decision to call it.”

Where are we now? Back in limbo, it appears.

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