NEIL DONCASTER is adamant that Scottish clubs could not have received any loans from the SPFL without concluding the season first.
A resolution from the governing body to cancel the remaining fixtures in the Championship, League One and League Two was passed last month, resulting in the standings being made final and the release of prize money to help keep clubs afloat.
Some clubs have criticised the SPFL for insisting that the only way to release the prize money was to conclude the season. Partick Thistle, who have been relegated as a result of the vote, released a statement in April arguing that alternative methods could have been used to get payments to clubs while in the top flight, Hearts owner Anne Budge claimed that the prize money was being used to persuade clubs to vote through the proposal.
But Doncaster – who appeared on BBC’s Sportsound programme to clarify the situation – insisted that it there was no viable alternative to releasing the prize money.
“The board had a huge amount of material to look into to decide what was to be done for the best of all clubs,” he explained. “It was clear that the amount of money that we wanted to pay out to clubs, which was partly end-of-season payments, the only realistic and viable way was as fee payments once the line had been drawn under the league season.
“It’s for that reason that we have yet to make fee payments to clubs in the Ladbrokes Premiership because those games are simply postponed at the moment, whereas the games in the lower three divisions have been cancelled because the season has been curtailed.
“In principal, the board could have made individual loans to individual clubs if it was convinced that it was in the best interests of the league overall to do so, and that each club that you were lending money to would have been a good credit risk.
“To have done that 42 times in short order would have been impossible. Being frank – given the financial crisis that the game is in – it’s absolutely impossible to see how the board could have satisfied itself that all 42 clubs would have been a good credit risk. Clubs forcing loan repayments would have left every other club liable for the loss.
“It is absolutely the case that there was no practical or realistic alternative to the board’s resolution.”
When pressed on the fact that advance payments had been made to Partick Thistle and Motherwell in 2017, when the two clubs missed out on games against the Old Firm, Doncaster said that payments such as these are common.
“Advance payments are made every single year of the SPFL,” he said. “They were made this year in August, again in January, again in March and again in April.
“As of the end of March we have already paid out in full to position six and position 12 in the Ladbrokes Premiership. Any further amounts that you make available to those clubs you stand a very real risk, if the games are then played, that clubs move places and they end up owing you money.”
The SPFL chairman was referring to payments made to Celtic, Rangers and Motherwell that are equivalent to sixth-placed finishes, as their top-six status is guaranteed, while each other club has been given a payment for a twelfth-placed finish.
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