The grand plan has landed. The Scottish football rescue package, the bright new dawn that will see our game bank 50 million bucks a year and lead us to the sunlit uplands. The clubs have done their research and the results are in. Except you probably missed it.
There was no big reveal, no dramatic unveiling, no razzmatazz or hype about something that’s supposed to revolutionise our game. Nah. Instead we had a handful of clubs putting out some wishy washy waffle about raising revenues from £28.8m a year to 50 large in the next five years. Lovely stuff.
Only thing missing was how they were planning to do this. It was a wee bit light on detail guys. And scrutiny. It said it all that this big statement was sneaked out on Monday morning and only three of the five clubs behind it even bothered to stick it on their club websites. Aberdeen, Hibs and Dundee United put it out. Celtic, Rangers and Hearts didn’t bother. Which doesn’t exactly scream confidence does it?
In fact, it yells a giant waste of time. This goes back a while now. The Dons, Hibs, Hearts and Dundee United and Dundee commissioned Deloittes to dig deep in to our game and see what we’re doing wrong. They got the findings and created an ‘innovation and strategy group’ comprising folk from the Old Firm, the Edinburgh clubs and Aberdeen. Our big five.
But we’re still waiting to find out what the innovation is or what the strategy will be. No one has told us. The representatives of the big five should have been sitting behind a big table this week unveiling the Grand Plan and taking questions from the floor.
Instead we got a few paragraphs on a few club websites, pushed out in between and numbing player interviews and adverts flogging the new fourth kit. And no details.
Where is the reasoning behind being in favour of this new proposed Sky Sports deal that will be worth up to £30m a year? Where is the other £20m coming from?
What we got is stuff like this. There needs to be a ‘realignment of the SPFL from a largely administrative function to a more robust and dynamic commercial structure’. Cool. In what way?
Here’s some more: “The strategic priorities are to maximise broadcast income and grow commercial partnerships and revenues. This will include securing more commercially attractive deals with broadcasters and increasing the value of overseas rights which would see more matches being sold.”
Okay, we’re going to get better sponsorship deals, maybe sell more games and charge more for international viewers. All good, but how? And why has this not been the case before?
There’s also this cracker, delivered without a shred of irony. The league are all about, ‘Improving the image, brand and profile of the SPFL is also a priority with the ambition to position the league both domestically and internationally as the ‘most dramatic, passionate and exciting’ in Europe and to strengthen cooperation between clubs and the league.’
Talk about improving the image, brand and profile – without actually having a proper announcement about doing it. We’re going to increase the profile but putting out the new vision on a website on a Monday morning. Blimey, they would have got more publicity whispering in a tramp’s ear.
At least Henry McLeish fronted up his big review. No wonder the Old Firm and Hearts stayed well clear. It’s like an episode of the Apprentice when one of the rare smart folk in a team knows a task is going belly up and they casually slip in to the background to let the leader take the fall.
Scottish football does need a major revolution. It does need to find ways to ramp up its revenues and it needs the clubs to unite for the common good. They also need to deal in reality rather than David Brent style corporate word soup.
Maybe the innovation and strategy group has come up with a genius plan and by 2029 we’ll be wiping our bahookies with tenners. But after the depressingly low key announcement this week, it’s maybe best we don’t hold our breaths.
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