Survival is name of the game

SOMETIMES you wonder if it can get any worse for Scottish football.

It can, of course, and it will if Setanta, the SPL's biggest benefactor goes to the wall.

Our game has known difficult times in the past, freedom of contract and Bosman just two hardships our clubs had to overcome, but this is different.

In the past chairmen could rely on the goodwill of the banks to see them through until a player was sold to balance the books. Not now.

If the Irish broadcaster goes under we'll witness a dramatic change to our football landscape.

At best, it's one that will see some SPL clubs slide into administration, a development that would see them start with a 10-point penalty next season.

At worst? We could lose a few of our top flight members altogether.

Only this week Henry McLeish, below, the man charged with drawing up a new blueprint for the game, said he was confident Scottish football will emerge from this crisis in good shape.

Whatever Henry's on, I'll have some of it. If the Setanta money disappears, the first victim will be youth development.

The long-term result would be catastrophic at a time Scotland is struggling to produce footballers of even basic technical competence.

If the clubs don't have the cash to develop the next generation of player, it's not coming from anywhere else. The Scottish Government has already reneged on its commitment to youth football.

In the meantime there isn't a club in the country who won't feel the chill if TV revenue dries up.

Will Clydesdale Bank, the SPL's title sponsor, commit the same cash to our game if the league has no broadcast partner?

Will shirt sponsors and trackside advertisers continue to cough up if they're denied television exposure?

Further down the food chain alarm bells are also ringing with good reason. Clyde, Stranraer and Livingston are just a few of the SFL clubs living day to day.

They need every penny they get from the agreement established when the SPL was formed over 10 years ago. If that handout was reduced how many more lower league outfits would struggle to survive? That scenario has crossed the mind of one First Division chairman as Partick Thistle's Allan Cowan has fired a warning shot at the big boys.

Cowan says any reduction in the SPL's annual £1.7 million payment to the SFL could lead to court action or a demand to expand the top league to 16 teams.

Does Cowan believe this will improve the standard of the SPL or make it more attractive commercially?

We don't know, he doesn't tell us. What we do know is that it will suit Thistle and there's the rub.

In the stampede for the lifeboats, nobody is thinking outside the box. They're too busy saving their own skin. While you can't fault them I do know this much.

If we go to a 16-team SPL we'll have reached the end game. The standard in the SPL is dire enough already without bringing in poorer players.

Doing away with two Old Firm games will have the sponsors running for cover.

Those too young to remember the original 18-team set-up need a history lesson.

They'll find the old league in the Natural History museum alongside the dinosaurs and the dodo. Killed off by boredom.

Celtic's 10-team proposal is also forged from self interest but would preserve the little credibility the SPL has left. A total of 36 games would accommodate a winter break while two-up, two- down would also make promotion more accessible to First Division clubs.

The split would go, giving clubs an equal number of games home and away. Anyone with a better idea should ring Lex Gold.

AS the managerial roundabout in the SPL spins it was no surprise to hear Paul Lambert rule out a return to Scotland.

Asked about a possible move to Fir Park to replace Mark McGhee, the shrewd Colchester boss quickly kicked that idea into touch.

From the moment that Lambert uprooted his family for a new start in Germany he's always been his own man.

He blanked the Largs mafia to take his coaching badges in Germany, commuted to Wycombe for his first chance in England and has settled in at Colchester.

That independent spirit will be his making in England.

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