UEFA’s ultimatum to national leagues that a failure to complete the soccer season could lead to exclusion from European competition has left the continent’s less wealthy leagues, such as Scotland, in limbo.
Scottish clubs were due to meet by videoconference on Friday with the possibility of following the Belgian league’s recommendation to call their season to an end amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
That meeting has been pushed back to next week, as Scottish clubs scramble just to survive in the months to come with matches indefinitely suspended on public health grounds.
Photo: AFP
Meagre television rights deals, especially in comparison with the English Premier League across the border, have seen Scotland slide down the food chain of European soccer.
The existing broadcast contract for the Scottish Premiership is reportedly only worth ￡21 million (US$22.7 million) annually.
Clubs can therefore little afford to miss out on European competition, with even those who do not participate eligible for solidarity payments from UEFA.
“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 said in a joint letter with the European Clubs Association and European Leagues.
Many Scottish clubs had been eager for the season to be called as it stands — with Celtic crowned champions — so that prize money could be handed out to solve a cash-flow crisis.
A proposal for league reconstruction whereby two teams are promoted and no side relegated from the top four leagues would also mitigate the damage and any potential legal challenges.
Instead, as so often, Scottish clubs have had to turn to their fan bases for support.
According to UEFA’s annual report on club licensing benchmarks, gate receipts provide 43 percent of revenue for the 12 clubs in the Scottish Premiership, by far the highest in Europe’s top 20 leagues.
The inability to play games and get people through the gate has already resulted in Hearts asking players to take a 50 percent pay cut and members of the Hibernian squad deferring up to half of their salaries.
Wage deferrals are on the horizon at Aberdeen, while even Celtic, who had ￡33 million cash in the bank according to their February financial figures, are mulling wage cuts, manager Neil Lennon said.
Despite the fate of this season hanging in the balance, clubs are looking ahead with season tickets for the 2020-2021 campaign, a means to a short-term cash injection.
“I’ve been heartened by the messages of support I have received from fans asking what they can do to help the club through this really difficult period,” Aberdeen chairman Dave Cormack said.
With just 10 percent of income for Scottish clubs coming from the TV deal that is due to expire at the end of this season, the big penalty clauses faced by Europe’s top five leagues with broadcasters for failing to fulfil fixtures are not as severe.
However, in Scotland, the issue is complicated by a more lucrative TV deal — worth a reported ￡32 million annually — set to start next season, meaning that clubs do not want to start the 2020-2021 campaign late due to delaying this season.
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