The Scottish FA - proving they can be worse than the English one

[Chicog]

Well done Glasgow Rangers for sticking two fingers up to them!

THE SPFL could have cost Scottish football a £500,000 windfall by refusing to allow Rangers supporters to watch play-off games as part of their season-ticket deals.

The Ibrox club announced yesterday that they are charging all fans just a fiver to watch the second leg of the quarter-final play-off against Queen of the South on Sunday week.

If they make it through to the latter stages of the play-offs, the fiver deal will remain in place for Ibrox matches, netting the SPFL just £80,000 for every game played.

Rangers were keen to allow up to 24,000 season-ticket holders to watch the play-offs as part of their package and would have charged other supporters an average of £20 a brief.

That would have netted the SPFL around £250,000-a-match, based on the 50 per cent levy imposed by league bosses.

The final total would reach around £750,000 if the championship club see off the Doonhamers and Hibs to make it through to face the 11th-placed side in the Premiership at the end of the month.

However, the SPFL insisted season-ticket holders were charged an entry fee, much to the disgust of the Ibrox club who claimed a precedent was set last season when the most loyal Hibs supporters did not have to pay to watch similar games.

If Rangers had forged ahead with plans to allow season-ticket holders entry without paying they would have lost money staging play-off matches – and the SPFL would have netted at least £300,000 a game.

[rott]

Good for Rangers. Has their absence from the Scottish Premiership had any noticeably negative financial effect on the others (excluding the unmentionables).?

[Chicog]

Good for Rangers. Has their absence from the Scottish Premiership had any noticeably negative financial effect on the others (excluding the unmentionables).?

God yes.

Without the Old Firm games the Scottish Premiership is barely worth watching.

I'm sure everyone in the top flight is praying for Rangers to get promoted, as much as everyone in the Championship is praying that they don't.

[rott]

Yes Chicog, I get that but am curious whether not playing Rangers has had an immediate and visible effect on balance sheets.

A while ago some Rangers forums were all for (on their return to the SP) boycotting aways at clubs who had voted against them. Not sure how they feel now.

[champers]

Aren't the SPFL and the Scottish FA two separate entities? I don't recall the Scottish FA taking six years to rebuild the national stadium and horrendously over budget for good measure. They've got some catching up to do on England's FA.

[Sd12]

I have not met anyone that actually misses The Rangers, apart from a few Celtic fans. So chicog your statement is quite bizzare. Quite a few Spl clubs have now shed their debt. There were only about 5 points separating the top 4 or 5 clubs until around February. Some clubs attendances have risen. I am not a Rangers hater, but there seems to be an overwhelming feeling amongst other clubs fans that they are not missed. Just check on some of the fans forums for some perspective.

[Chicog]

I have not met anyone that actually misses The Rangers, apart from a few Celtic fans. So chicog your statement is quite bizzare. Quite a few Spl clubs have now shed their debt. There were only about 5 points separating the top 4 or 5 clubs until around February. Some clubs attendances have risen. I am not a Rangers hater, but there seems to be an overwhelming feeling amongst other clubs fans that they are not missed. Just check on some of the fans forums for some perspective.

Most of the clubs have had their debts written off or reduced, simply because they can't afford to pay them. It's the only thing keeping Scottish football afloat.

And without the marquee derbies, not only is the TV money staying in the toilet, but you will struggle to find a title sponsor for the league.

So the only real way of raising money is by selling your best players to England and other leagues, which ultimately makes the football even worse - and it was mostly crap this last season.

And it has other effects:

Clyde have reluctantly accepted they will have to close their youth academy ahead of the 2015/16 season citing a lack of funding from the Scottish FA as the reason.

[Sd12]

I'm sure if you were to ask Aberdeen, Caley, St Johnstone fans and one or two others, it has been quite an enjoyable season just past, as opposed to being "mostly crap" . The "marquee derbies" were overhyped pitch battles after the 80's and 90's in my personal opinion. It is quite sad that the Scottish Football governing body cant get off their collective <deleted> and market the league beyond a four game fest.

[Sd12]

Does the league not have a sponsor for next season? I thought a deal was agreed a couple of months ago.

[Chicog]

I'm sure if you were to ask Aberdeen, Caley, St Johnstone fans and one or two others, it has been quite an enjoyable season just past, as opposed to being "mostly crap" . The "marquee derbies" were overhyped pitch battles after the 80's and 90's in my personal opinion. It is quite sad that the Scottish Football governing body cant get off their collective <deleted> and market the league beyond a four game fest.

But that's exactly what they have been doing for several years now, and what you're seeing is how much it's worth.

[Chicog]

Does the league not have a sponsor for next season? I thought a deal was agreed a couple of months ago.

Here we go:

The SPFL has today announced the betting company Ladbrokes as its title sponsor from season 2015/16, in a two-year deal which includes rights across all four leagues and 42 clubs.

Grand total of 4m. I bet Rangers got more than that from 32Red.

Oh, and...

Hoops chief executive Peter Lawwell revealed that his side are losing as much as £10million per year due to the absence of their rivals in the Scottish top flight.

Edited June 24, 2015 by Chicog

[petermik]

Does the league not have a sponsor for next season? I thought a deal was agreed a couple of months ago.

Sorry I didn,t realise professional football was played in Scotland

[Sd12]

Ahh well it didn't take long for some idiot to join in the conversation.

[smokie36]

The quality of football in Scotland now is dire.

Very few people can be arsed to watch it and the SFA have had their snouts in the trough for thirty years.

Can we bring through young stars any more?

Jury is out....

[Chicog]

The quality of football in Scotland now is dire.

Very few people can be arsed to watch it and the SFA have had their snouts in the trough for thirty years.

Can we bring through young stars any more?

Jury is out....

There's just not enough money, not when your premium asset is no longer there.

[smokie36]

The quality of football in Scotland now is dire.

Very few people can be arsed to watch it and the SFA have had their snouts in the trough for thirty years.

Can we bring through young stars any more?

Jury is out....

There's just not enough money, not when your premium asset is no longer there.

Its just one factor for me...sure the Old Firm games make a lot of cash but really the quality of home grown players needs addressing throughout our leagues.

Simply not good enough!

[Sd12]

Scottish football has been dying since the mid 80's and Rangers and Celtic are to blame for this. Rangers started when David Murray took over and spent well outwith their means. Murray put hardly a penny of his own in, it was all money from his buddies at the bank. Celtic then had to follow suit to keep their bigoted fans happy. Scotland is just not big enough to enable gates to sustain this level of spending outwith the old firm, which is fuelled by mostly central belt bigotry. Look at the period before this when both Aberdeen and Dundee United were regularly doing well in Europe and domestically. The game changed mid 80's. Even when Aberdeen were winning titles Aberdeen never filled their stadium every week unless it was a crucial match. You only have to look at the 90s and 00s to see both the Glasgow teams buying up any Scottish talent, usually to put on the bench, just to weaken other Scottish teams, because they had the money to do this.

[Chicog]

The quality of football in Scotland now is dire.

Very few people can be arsed to watch it and the SFA have had their snouts in the trough for thirty years.

Can we bring through young stars any more?

Jury is out....

There's just not enough money, not when your premium asset is no longer there.

Its just one factor for me...sure the Old Firm games make a lot of cash but really the quality of home grown players needs addressing throughout our leagues.

Simply not good enough!

But as I posted above, it's not much kop when you have to close your academy due to lack of funds.

The old firm games aren't PPV - they can be sold included in the package and everyone benefits.

[Chicog]

Scottish football has been dying since the mid 80's and Rangers and Celtic are to blame for this. Rangers started when David Murray took over and spent well outwith their means. Murray put hardly a penny of his own in, it was all money from his buddies at the bank. Celtic then had to follow suit to keep their bigoted fans happy. Scotland is just not big enough to enable gates to sustain this level of spending outwith the old firm, which is fuelled by mostly central belt bigotry. Look at the period before this when both Aberdeen and Dundee United were regularly doing well in Europe and domestically. The game changed mid 80's. Even when Aberdeen were winning titles Aberdeen never filled their stadium every week unless it was a crucial match. You only have to look at the 90s and 00s to see both the Glasgow teams buying up any Scottish talent, usually to put on the bench, just to weaken other Scottish teams, because they had the money to do this.

'Tis true, and that's why there has been a fair amount of kerfuffle in Spain this year about Real and Barca sharing around half of the TV revenue.

At least in England it is shared around more equitably and not just to perennial top four or five.

[smokie36]

The quality of football in Scotland now is dire.

Very few people can be arsed to watch it and the SFA have had their snouts in the trough for thirty years.

Can we bring through young stars any more?

Jury is out....

There's just not enough money, not when your premium asset is no longer there.

Its just one factor for me...sure the Old Firm games make a lot of cash but really the quality of home grown players needs addressing throughout our leagues.

Simply not good enough!

But as I posted above, it's not much kop when you have to close your academy due to lack of funds.

The old firm games aren't PPV - they can be sold included in the package and everyone benefits.

The problem Rangers will have is a huge gap in finances compared to Celtic.

That's assuming they win promotion this year!

A two horse race isn't that interesting....but worse the quality on offer is boring as hell compared to the Premiership.

[Sd12]

Most countries are similar i suppose. It is mostly the same rich clubs that make the champions league later stages. The Premier league in England has more competition but is still dominated by 3 or 4 rich clubs.

[Chicog]

Most countries are similar i suppose. It is mostly the same rich clubs that make the champions league later stages. The Premier league in England has more competition but is still dominated by 3 or 4 rich clubs.

Actually two obscenely rich ones, one flush one and one that does it all on credit.

It could have been dominated by a couple of others given the money they've spent, but they buy crap players and change managers like Smokie changes his underpants - once a year or more.

[smokie36]

Most countries are similar i suppose. It is mostly the same rich clubs that make the champions league later stages. The Premier league in England has more competition but is still dominated by 3 or 4 rich clubs.

Actually two obscenely rich ones, one flush one and one that does it all on credit.

It could have been dominated by a couple of others given the money they've spent, but they buy crap players and change managers like Smokie changes his underpants - once a year or more.

I wear nothing under my kilt.