Friday, November 20, 2009
Top Scottish Clubs Own a Hundred Million Pounds
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Herald Scotland - Top Scots football clubs owe £100m
Scotland’s top football clubs are carrying debt totalling nearly £100 million
Graeme MacPherson
0 18 Nov 2009
Scotland’s top football clubs are carrying debt totalling nearly £100 million which will burden many of them for years to come.
According to official figures, Rangers and Hearts owe about £30m each, Kilmarnock and Aberdeen approximately £9m each, Dundee United £6.6m, and Hibernian £3.6m.
Deficits at the remaining SPL clubs are less acute.
According to one leading expert in the field of Scottish football finance, it would take major changes in those clubs’ circumstances for them to be finally be rid of that financial millstone.
Kicking off a series of investigations in The Herald into football’s finances, Stephen Morrow, head of Sports Science Studies at the University of Stirling,said: “It is difficult to see, in the current trading model that Scottish football is in, how they could find a way to pay that off. That’s not to say they can’t manage that debt.
“They can look after the interest payments on it but unless something changes to the structure or the finances of those clubs – or something substantial changes to their trading environment – then all they will be doing is very, very slowly bringing the debt down. But nothing dramatic is ever likely to happen.
“You’re not getting something new for it like a new stadium or training facility, you’re just using those sums to tread water.”
Mr Morrow does not expect an SPL club to enter adminstration in the immediate future but acknowledged that those with high levels of debt needed to tread carefully.
“I don’t necessarily think so at the moment [that a club could go into administration]. [But] there is always that risk as you have clubs effectively living on the edge as, if you have a club with a high level of debt, it doesn’t take much for it to go wrong.”
Contrary to public perception, though, Morrow dismissed suggestions that the banks are considering making major changes to the facilities offered to most Scottish clubs.
“In the overall scheme of things, with regards to bank debts and obligations, we are still talking about relatively small sums of money here,” he said. Herald Scotand
Herald Scotland - Top Scots football clubs owe £100m
Scotland’s top football clubs are carrying debt totalling nearly £100 million
Graeme MacPherson
0 18 Nov 2009
Scotland’s top football clubs are carrying debt totalling nearly £100 million which will burden many of them for years to come.
According to official figures, Rangers and Hearts owe about £30m each, Kilmarnock and Aberdeen approximately £9m each, Dundee United £6.6m, and Hibernian £3.6m.
Deficits at the remaining SPL clubs are less acute.
According to one leading expert in the field of Scottish football finance, it would take major changes in those clubs’ circumstances for them to be finally be rid of that financial millstone.
Kicking off a series of investigations in The Herald into football’s finances, Stephen Morrow, head of Sports Science Studies at the University of Stirling,said: “It is difficult to see, in the current trading model that Scottish football is in, how they could find a way to pay that off. That’s not to say they can’t manage that debt.
“They can look after the interest payments on it but unless something changes to the structure or the finances of those clubs – or something substantial changes to their trading environment – then all they will be doing is very, very slowly bringing the debt down. But nothing dramatic is ever likely to happen.
“You’re not getting something new for it like a new stadium or training facility, you’re just using those sums to tread water.”
Mr Morrow does not expect an SPL club to enter adminstration in the immediate future but acknowledged that those with high levels of debt needed to tread carefully.
“I don’t necessarily think so at the moment [that a club could go into administration]. [But] there is always that risk as you have clubs effectively living on the edge as, if you have a club with a high level of debt, it doesn’t take much for it to go wrong.”
Contrary to public perception, though, Morrow dismissed suggestions that the banks are considering making major changes to the facilities offered to most Scottish clubs.
“In the overall scheme of things, with regards to bank debts and obligations, we are still talking about relatively small sums of money here,” he said. Herald Scotand
