Douglas Ross has branded the Scottish Government as pathetic for their failure to provide hand-outs to high spending football clubs.
It is another example of how out of touch the football authorities are and why the approach of Ian Maxwell and Neil Doncaster has failed so spectacularly.
A £50m package of support for sport seems to upset Premiership clubs with £20m given in grants to rugby clubs and £10m given to clubs in Scotland’s three lower divisions with Arbroath and Alloa picking up £500,000 each.
The SFA have shown their political hand by backing D Ross to the hilt despite the fact that he doesn’t have a seat in the Hollyrood Parliament. Between August and December the MP for Moray was given nine weekend Glasgow appointments which come with a £450 match fee plus generous travel and accommodation expenses.
In return D Ross attacks the Scottish Government during a pandemic where resources are scarce. Within Scottish football Celtic are regularly paying their Chief Executive £3m a year while at Ibrox a £9.7m bill to HMRC has been delayed to spend that money on two footballers from Belgium and one in Switzerland.
Failing to see that hand outs to football clubs is a distant priority D Ross has attacked the Government in the Daily Mail with the Daily Record eager to pick up on his comments:
Christmas has come and gone, we’re all back living in the harshest of pandemic restrictions, and some of Scotland’s football clubs are still waiting on adequate financial support from the SNP Government.
Nicola Sturgeon just doesn’t seem to get it at all. At the moment, even some Premiership teams are struggling to make ends meet. We all know what clubs and the game itself needs the most. That’s fans back in the grounds.
But that doesn’t look like happening in the immediate future and until that day comes, we should at least ensure our clubs make it through to that point. Leaving clubs with no support, when many are key parts of their local communities, is a complete disgrace. The SNP’s support for Scottish football has been lukewarm and their treatment of clubs is, frankly, pathetic.
With no Financial Fair Play regulation or genuine accountability/transparency the Scottish Government has many more deserving causes than keeping millionaires in their lives of luxury.