SPL makes £1m profit but grim times ahead

Scotland's leading football clubs face a lean time over the next three or four years, with cost-cutting remaining the order of the day, according to the latest Annual Financial Review of the SPL by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

The review noted that the top flight had recorded an overall profit of 1 million for season 2009-10 compared to a loss of 22m for the previous season. But its author, David Glen, said that turnaround was down to specific circumstances - Hearts and Kilmarnock benefitting from a "forgiveness of debt" and Rangers reaching the group stages of the Champions League - and that the underlying trend was not encouraging. He warned that most clubs would still need to sell their best players.

"Player trading is the way to make the books balance," Glen said. "That's generally not what the fans want to hear, because it's a club's best players who get sold, but unfortunately that's how Scottish football survives. There has been a dramatic drop in attendances, which has continued in the season just finished. That's where we're seeing the real recessionary impact, with many supporters asking if they can afford season tickets when they and their families are tightening their belts.

"We're hovering above the dreaded double-dip recession, but national growth is lower than was forecast. It will probably be another three to four years before things pick up."

Glen warned against the temptation to speculate to accumulate, arguing that it was not the time for other clubs to try to challenge Rangers and Celtic by buying big. "Right now is not the time to splash out on a couple of glory players in the hope of challenging the Old Firm. If you do, you're heading for trouble. Having said that, I think the Old Firm will come back closer to the rest because they are not getting direct entry into the Champions League."