Longmuir’s £100,000 SFL bonus
Details of the deal came to light last week as the finishing touches were put to the deal to establish the SPFL out of the SPL and SFL.
While due diligence was carried out on the accounts of both organisations the SFL clubs present were shocked to discover Longmuir’s bonus.
Queen of the South won the Second Division title last season on a playing budget of £350,000 with every penny a prisoner in the lower reaches of Scottish football.
Longmuir’s reputation has fallen apart over the last year with the ultimate humiliation- losing out to Neil Doncaster as CE of the SPFL- almost a formality after his secret payout was uncovered.
Following the discovery SFL vice chairman and Alloa director Ewan Cameron told the Daily Record: “In my time in the management committee and as a recent board member I have never seen a bonus payment go through the books.
“I heard this bonus payment mentioned for the first time in that room with four or five top SPL guys like Eric Riley. I’m led to believe a bonus entitlement historically has been a matter between chief executive and president but I was in the room as vice-president and it’s the first I’d heard of it.
“The SPFL baulked at the figure. It’s difficult to comment on something which was sprung on me in a crowded room. Myself and the other board members, Anne McKeown and Ken Ferguson, knew nothing of it but Jim (SFL President Jim Ballantyne of Airdrie Utd) seemed to know.”
In order to get the SPFL deal through it has been agreed that Longmuir’s bonus will be paid with £100,000 disappearing out the door as lower division clubs indulge in the annual round of cost cutting.
Longmuir’s bonus payment is £5,000 more than the EBT loan given to SFA President Campbell Ogilvie from Rangers.