Scottish football fans will embrace a ground-breaking proposal to turn them into cyber season ticket holders next season if it ensures their financially-stricken clubs survive the coronavirus crisis, it was last night claimed.

The possibility of the opening matches of the 2020/21 campaign having to be played behind closed doors or in front of vastly reduced crowds due to the Covid-19 pandemic has created potential problems for chairmen and chief executives across the country.

Many clubs, including Ladbrokes Premiership outfits Aberdeen, Celtic, Hearts, Hibernian and Rangers, have started selling season tickets for next term in order to generate much-needed revenue during the shutdown.

However, the prospect of strict government social distancing rules still being in place when the new season kicks off later this year and spectators being barred from filing through the turnstiles at Easter Road, Ibrox, Parkhead, Pittodrie and Tynecastle has left them facing a major quandry.

Roy MacGregor, the Ross County owner and internationally successful businessman, is refusing to sell season tickets to supporters of the Highland club because he believes he will be unable to let them all in to the Global Energy Stadium.

MacGregor has also predicted that Scottish champions Celtic – whose average home attendance in the 2019/20 season was 57,944 - could be forced to play in front of crowds of just 10,000 when competitive action finally resumes after the summer.

Neil Doncaster, the SPFL chief executive, is set to hold talks with Sky Sports, whose £130 million deal to broadcast Premiership fixtures will kick in next season, about the prospect of clubs transmitting live matches to season ticket holders who are prohibited from attending.

Paul Goodwin, a director of the Scottish Football Supporters Association, believes the vast majority of season ticket holders will accept the offer of online access to games due to the extraordinary challenges currently facing the game.

“Logistically, this is going to be really complicated for the clubs,” said Goodwin. “How can you sell something which you can’t actually deliver? It is going to be a challenge.

“It is a difficult one. How does giving season ticket holders access to live matches impact upon the agreement with Sky and the games they are going to be screening? They have just signed a new contract. We are also selling the rights abroad.

“Lots of clubs have their own television channels and fans pay £5 a month or whatever. When the crisis started Partick Thistle said it was free for everybody. But that is generally behind-the-scenes stuff and archive footage. I just wonder if it will be too complicated to do for actual live matches. It will be complex.

“But, at the end of the day, fans want to see their clubs continue. I think season ticket holders would accept it if their club came to them and said ‘we can’t let you in to games, but we can let you watch the matches on television’.”

He continued: “Sky are a business, they are in it for the long haul, they value Scottish football. I think they will be pragmatic about it. Concessions must be made in difficult times.

“I would be most surprised if they said ‘no’. I think they will be more open to it than some people expect. They appreciate as broadcasters that we are all in this together. They won’t want to be seen to be the bad boys. We are going to bounce back from this. It isn’t going to last forever.”

Goodwin, whose organisation has 72,000 members across the country, predicted that all Scottish clubs will experience a marked decrease in income in the coming months due to a rise in unemployment and a worldwide recession.

However, the Partick Thistle supporter, the spokesman for the Thistle For Ever fan ownership group, is confident that fans will do everything possible to help their teams enjoy success on the field.

“The clubs need to generate income,” he said. “I understand the need to get money in. But I think season ticket sales will be down across the board as there is that much uncertainty in everybody’s day-to-day business lives.

“The fans, the hard core ones, are up for it. Look at what fans have thrown into the pot to keep the clubs going so far. Having said that, I think there will be a huge number who will wait and see.”

He continued: “But what is a football fan? They hate being called customers. But a football fan is a super customer. They are unique in business. They cannot change. If you get fed up driving a Vauxhall you can buy a Volkswagen. If you fed up shopping at Asda you can go to Tesco.

“But you can’t stop supporting Partick Thistle and go to watch another club. It is engrained in you, indoctrinated in you. Clubs have uber-loyalty. It is a religion in many respects.

“A German professor I spoke to recently who specialises in football finance said to me ‘there is only one form of extremism greater than football fans and that is Islamic fundamentalism’.

“There will be a few around the edges who moan about it and we are all going to be in different financial positions. I can understand the pain.

“But a lot of fans, at the bigger clubs like Celtic and Rangers especially, already stretch themselves and sacrifice a heck of a lot to buy a season ticket. Some of their season tickets cost £800, £1,000. It is a lot of money if you are on a relatively low income. But they will continue to do so.”