£30m Aid Package For Scottish Football

Scottish football has been provided a £30m aid package from a total £55m announced by First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon today (10 December 2020).

£20m of the funding will be offered to Scottish Premiership clubs in the form of loans.

£10m will follow in grants for lower league clubs in the Championship, League One and League Two, Junior teams and the women’s game.

Scotland’s First Minister has confirmed the support package: “The devastating impact the pandemic has had on spectator sports across the country, particularly when so many of Scotland’s sporting clubs receive a significant portion of their income through spectator attending events.

“I’m able to confirm we will set out a £55m package of support for various spectators sports. This will comprise of grants and loans.

“It will include £30m for Scottish football with support for all levels of the game. It should be noted top-flight English men’s football has not received financial support of this kind from the UK Government.

“I can confirm that Scottish rugby will benefit from £20m and it will also include funding for basketball, netball, motor sport, horse-racing and ice hockey. That support package, taken in its entirety, will be well in excess of the Barnett consequentials as a result of the investment announced last month by the UK Government.”

The £20m for rugby will comprise of £5m in loans and £15m in grants, while ice rinks and horse racing will get £2m each.

The remaining £1m will be divided between basketball, motorsports, netball and other sports.

Derek McInnes said: “It seems like a lot of money but when you spread that out over everybody that has got a case for it and who is going to be in need of it.

“I don’t want to sound ungrateful, but it is not going to go the full way for us. We have still got loads to do and loads to deal with.”