A story which has been on the back page of every Scottish newspaper in the last year is the financial crisis which has hit Scottish premier league (SPL) clubs. The facts about this crisis and why the clubs are in financial disarray are going to be explained in this essay.
The SPL is now one quarter in administration and in the next couple of months more are expected to follow suit and call in the administrators to cut off their biggest earners. Dundee ,Motherwell and Livingston have all gone into administration releasing over 25 players.
It began in the 1997/98 season Hearts of Midlothian who are situated in the Edinburgh won the Coca-Cola cup (now C.I.S insurance cup) with 11 Scots all up and coming Scotland internationals. This was all good but what was even better was that they beat the SPL champions Rangers .Who at the time were brimming with foreign talent . Everyone thought maybe now we could have a 3rd force in Scotland not just the old firm (Rangers and Celtic).Then disaster struck the club spent to much on upgrading the stadium and if they did not sell players they would go bust. Now such stars as Colin Cameron and Gary Naysmith are playing at the highest level in England .
Administration does not just effect Scottish clubs . Clubs in Italy and such as Florintina have disappeared into obscurity . Closer to home Clydebank had to sell up their stadium and turn into a junior side as they were not aloud into the top leagues anymore.
A big blow for clubs was when they rejected a bid from BskyB of £50 million thinking a higher bid would come because last year entertainment went up as the title came down to the last game and goal.The SPL sides had to settle with £5 million between them as BBC stepped in to save them from having no broadcast this year.