Players in Scotland need to share the financial burden, warns club chairman

Stenhousemuir’s Iain McMenemy explains why deferring wages only delays the pain for clubs

Scotland manager Steve Clarke should be applauded for stepping forward and taking a wage cut during football's shutdown. Picture: Ian MacNicol/Getty Images

Are we all starting to adjust to our new normal? Certainly, this week feels different to last week. Things feel sombre, the situation feels a bit more real. The prospect that we all face a long time in lockdown is starting to hit home.

No doubt like me, we are starting to get calls from people indicating that someone we know has the virus. More emergency measures are being introduced by Government, we are queuing for bread. It now feels like we are indeed living through a pandemic.

It sometimes strikes me as absurd that me and many others are still trying to deal with football matters. But at the end of the day, there are jobs to consider, there are football clubs like ours in Stenhousemuir which are focal hubs for our communities. And of course, football is such a significant part of society in “normal” times, that of course we must ensure clubs get through this. We need to keep football ticking over.

This week we have been dealing with trying to reduce our cost base as all our significant income has been stopped for three months minimum, most probably this will be five or six months, possibly longer. Our survival will depend on reducing our outgoings.

It is painfully clear to me that football clubs like ours will only survive and be in a fit state to return if everybody involved is willing to share some of the pain we will all experience over the coming weeks and months.

So this week we’ve been engaging with organisations and individuals with whom we have a financial relationship to see if we can ease costs. This has included our finance agreements, suppliers, and other contractual agreements to try to reduce costs. I am delighted that in the main, we have been able to reach deals. Everyone knows what is happening and there does seem to be an understanding and willingness to help.

This week we have also held discussions with all our staff and players. The staff had already stepped forward and made voluntary wage reduction offers, and the first-team coaching staff had united to offer to hand back their wages to help the club. Tremendous all round.

We have now engaged with the players. Like the others around the club, we are asking them to share the financial burden and voluntarily offer to take a wage cut. If everyone can share a little of the pain, then we can collectively save all jobs at the club. We need to stand shoulder to shoulder for everyone’s benefit.

On Tuesday we heard that the Scotland manager Steve Clarke had taken a wage cut, as have Scottish FA and SPFL staff. People can quibble over the amounts, but I pay tribute to them for at least stepping forward to share the financial burden.

We have all heard the stories coming out of some football clubs in England, where all club and backroom staff are furloughed on reduced wages whilst players continue to take full salaries. I sincerely hope Scotland chooses a 
different path.

I am led to believe that the PFA, the players union in Scotland, is pushing for players to ask for full wages, albeit by deferring a portion until later in the year. I hope this isn’t the case. A deferred wage means that the demand is still the same – 100 per cent of wages. Football clubs that are lucky enough to survive this will be in poor financial health when things slowly start to get back to normal. To think that clubs, part-time community clubs in particular, can go into a new season, carrying additional deferred debt from a previous season wage bill is simply not realistic.

I sincerely hope that those who think this is a good thing will take note of what is happening in clubs like ours right now. The majority of our club staff are going onto furlough. We are retaining a skeleton team to keep the club going, to continue to deliver online and fitness programmes for community kids, and to support our Community Help Initiative. That initiative is now supporting 75 vulnerable people and families with essential shopping and medicine deliveries. It is delivering over 130 school meals a day for ten local schools, it is doing the shopping for NHS workers and it is a phone service for anyone needing reassurance.

At the same time, dozens of people from all over the world have purchased a share in the club. I had a local supporter hand in a day of his wage to help the club out. Others have handed in a fiver or tenner. Some have set up standing orders for what they can afford. These are all people that are willing to sacrifice a bit of their wage packet to help the club survive, I hope that the players and everyone else connected to the club will return that goodwill and do likewise.