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Sevco Is The Sick Man Of Scottish Football. They Are In Lethal Trouble If This Crisis Goes On And On.

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Image for Sevco Is The Sick Man Of Scottish Football. They Are In Lethal Trouble If This Crisis Goes On And On.

Today, Aberdeen became the latest team to squeal at the financial pinch.

Their board issued a communique making it clear that if they are facing “five to six months without income” that they will be in real danger. They said no club could survive that; we could. I went over the numbers yesterday. We have cash on hand to do exactly that.

But without income thereafter, from season tickets, sponsors cash, advertising … at that point we would be in a pile of trouble, the kind that puts clubs away.

Aberdeen faces £5 million in outgoings before the end of July.

They don’t anticipate income of any sort in that timeframe.

I think that’s pessimistic, but their statement makes it clear that they only had £1.5 million in the bank a week ago … if their estimates are even half correct they are in a bad spot, the kind of spot where cuts have to start, deep cuts, immediately, or administration becomes a possibility and perhaps even a certainty.

Imagine a club with far greater expenses; the second most in the league.

A club who’s weekly outgoings are in the millions. A club which is reeling from expected court case verdicts and who doesn’t, yet, have a shirt manufacturer. The clock on that is running down fast. On top of that, they needed a vast sum to get through this campaign and don’t have it yet.

Sevco is in existential crisis here. The media won’t explore it. I will take a proper look tomorrow. But they are in more trouble than any other club in the country. Even without games, the costs of running such a vast enterprise are astronomical.

Like Aberdeen, they cannot take for granted the idea that cash will be coming in. It may not be.

Season ticket income alone isn’t going to make a dent in their problems either, not when they have such an array of running costs.

Will there be European football? You never can tell. I would not like our club to depending on Group Stage action in the next campaign. Anything can happen here. We are sitting on a £30 million surplus and we would have to be worried … I don’t know how a club without cushion, and with a massive wage bill, will cope with it.

That’s a distant problem for Sevco … next season?

Talk of next season seems ludicrous right now where they are concerned; their problems are much more imminent, much closer to the here and now.

I don’t know how they intended to get through the season had it ran as normal with more home games to play and thus more money coming in … the fantastical ideas about foreign investors, share issues and a big chunk of merchandising up front are pipedreams.

Sevco is bleeding out as we watch, and they didn’t have a full blood bank to begin with.

Posting losses is bad in a good year … right now it’s disastrous.

Yesterday the media was running stories about Atletico Madrid hovering around Morelos; even if the player had been worth the crazy sums they were talking about once, and even if Madrid’s interest was real and not another kite being flown, a dreadful, disinterested second half of the campaign sent his value plummeting and this crisis has scrapped the chrome off of him quicker than an LA street gang. They’d be lucky to get mid-seven figures.

The transfer window doesn’t open for months. Sales are not going to save them.

Without a share issue – impossible right now – that’s not going to save them.

Emergency loans might, but from who and with what guarantees?

No match-day income, no prize money until the league issue is resolved and nothing from UEFA as they wait to find out what’s what.

Nothing coming in. Nothing at all.

Only money, leaking out of them like slow death. Except that it will not be slow. This is not going to be the medieval horror we call the Chinese Death of A Thousand Cuts; when the downhill slide starts it will swift, like the hacking off of limbs.

This is going to test the idea of their very survival, and nobody is coming to their aid.

This might truly be a Year Zero moment for the eight-year-old club.

As Scottish football goes through the current crisis it is important to keep up with developments and the key issues. We are determined to do so, and to keep you informed as well. Please subscribe to the blog.

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