At last. At long last, someone’s broken ranks.
Aberdeen has published excellent accounts which show they are in profit for the third year in a row. Not only that, they are on the verge of a move to a new stadium which will give them the wherewithal to raise ever greater sums of money.
Their posted income of £13.4 million is only one moderately less than that which was made by Sevco. They have the second best team in the country at the moment, although I don’t think they should be settling for a status where a Scottish hack praised them this week for being a “70 points team”.
They are bigger and better than that, and they are run right.
Breaking even has become something of a watchword over there.
Their chairman, Stewart Milne, is one of those little know individuals in Scottish football; he doesn’t want his name and his face in the papers every other week. He doesn’t seek to be the front man for revolutionary change. It’s also not generally understood how wealthy he is; this is a guy sitting on £100 million plus, which puts every other club chairman in the shade. Bar none.
But this guy believes in doing things right, in doing them by the book.
Sugar-daddy wealth doesn’t make sustainable football teams. Building slowly, sacrificing years, that’s what does it. He has set them up in such a way that they can. When their new stadium and training complex are complete they’ll be in tip-top shape for the challenges ahead.
In the report, they specifically outline their compliance with UEFA Financial Fair Play regulations; why, do you think, they did that?
They did it because they can smell what’s wafting out of Ibrox right now.
When Warburton made his comments the other day about Scottish football needing to rethink the winter break to give teams a chance in Europe he made sure to reiterate how important European football income is to his club.
Now I might sound paranoid, but he’s sending a message to the SFA, reminding them that their club is virtually dead without European money.
They’ll get a European license for next season as sure as you can be, although there’s some question as to whether or not they fulfil the criteria. Only a UEFA audit would be likely to prevent it; the SFA will not stand in their way.
This is how it starts, this is the pressure slowly being ramped up.
They might as well have asked for an increased quota of Honest Mistakes and have done with it. We were supposed to take time to hit high gear; our league start was designed so that if we slipped at all we’d go into the second part of the campaign having to play tough away games.
But with Sevco out of the running for the title already and as no amount of refereeing help is going to change that, attention now turns to the task of keeping them ahead of the rest and the word has already gone out as to how important that is.
Yet even without that help, even if it’s not forthcoming, Stewart Milne and his board know the fix is already in, because Sevco can spend more money than his club can, and won’t feel hindered by little things like the rules. Some think Ibrox and the size of it, and the number of season tickets, is what makes them bigger than Aberdeen, but as we’ve seen Ibrox costs a fortune to run and will cost even more to maintain over the next few years.
The two clubs would have comparable wage bills if Sevco had to live within its means.
Milne knows that. We all know it.
This business of soft loans, of robbing Peter to pay Paul, it can’t go on indefinitely. Aberdeen know this too. We know this. Milne and his club don’t want to suffer through another summer of uncertainty and doubt as to the outcome.
They’ve worked hard to get here, and they know that there are rules which can be introduced to stay this madness.
Clubs ought to only be allowed to spend what they earn.
Indefinite carrying of losses can‘t be permitted.
Board members and wealthy benefactors can “invest” only up to a point, and with full transparency and the scrutiny of the association.
Beyond that, clubs need to start cutting so they live within their means.
This isn’t revolutionary.
It is how it’s done now, across Europe, even in England, in the EPL, where financial insanity reigned for so long. And they adopted those regulations voluntarily as did every single one of England’s professional leagues.
Here in Scotland, we’re oddly resistant to the idea. I’ve not seen it as much as broached by a single club, although I know there’s talk – overdue talk – of it being raised by our shareholders at this year’s AGM. I hope it is, and I hope it succeeds.
Aberdeen are the first.
They’ve put their compliance with UEFA’s own regulations there in their accounts, in black and white.
They are sending a strong message to both the European body and to the SFA that not every club in Scotland can say the same.
When Sevco were a ploughing their way up through the ranks this was nobody’s business but their own; clubs in the SPL have to prove they are worthy of a European license though; every club in every top flight in Europe has to apply to be thus certified as a matter of course.
But it’s the SFA who does the cerifying. You can see why there’s concern.
Milne could not have spelled it out better if he tried.
The question is, what’s he going to do to take it further?
What are other clubs prepared to do, to get this issue resolved once and for all?
As I’ve said, repeatedly, Celtic can take care of itself. Our club won’t be impacted by Sevco’s crooked behaviour.
We’ll win the title and be in the Champions League qualifiers.
It’s other clubs who will suffer.
The time is coming for them to take a stand on that.
Aberdeen, at least, seem willing.
It’ll be interesting to see where this goes.