THE Scottish Football Association yesterday announced record turnover of £25.3million for 2007 but remain no closer to repairing the hole in their finances which accounted for 25 per cent of that income.
The figures revealed at the SFA's annual general meeting at Hampden include the final year of Tennent's long standing sponsorship of the Scottish Cup. This season has seen the tournament played without a new sponsor, with the SFA dipping into their
own resources to pay their clubs £1.25 million in prize money.
The loss of Tennent's revenue will be reflected in next year's accounts and SFA president George Peat admitted there is no immediate sign of securing a new backer for the 2008-09 Scottish Cup.
"Everyone in sport is having trouble with sponsorship at the moment," said Peat. "It's part of the wider economic problems in the world. It's been a real problem for us and continues to be difficult.
"Our clubs have not suffered at all this season, because we have paid them the money they would have received in any case, but obviously we are keen to find a new sponsor as soon as possible."
Gordon Smith, the SFA's chief executive, does not believe this season's Scottish Cup, which reaches its climax on Saturday with the final between Rangers and Queen of the South at Hampden, has been diminished by the absence of a sponsor.
"I think we have had a fantastic tournament," said Smith, "and the semi-final between Aberdeen and Queen of the South was one of the greatest matches we have seen in the Scottish Cup. It remains the greatest competition in Scotland and I'm confident we will get a sponsor in place for next season."
The SFA's turnover was up £6.2million on the previous year, with Tennent's sponsorship bringing in £6.3 million, an indication of how significant their involvement was. The other main contributor to the record figure was Scotland's remarkable Euro 2008 qualification campaign.
Despite the ultimate failure to make it to this summer's finals in Austria and Switzerland, sell-out fixtures at Hampden against Georgia, Lithuania, Ukraine and Italy helped to swell the SFA coffers along with substantial television and commercial income from the games.
The 2007 Uefa Cup final between Sevilla and Espanyol at the national stadium was also a financial boon, with Hampden Park Limited, the subsidiary company which runs the venue, also posting record turnover of £5.2 million.
Peat yesterday announced a major investment of more than £7 million in youth and grassroots football as a result of the SFA's record year. A one-off payment of £2.9 million goes to the Football Partnership, with a further £4.2 million earmarked for grants, coaches, youth teams and community networks throughout Scotland.
Two motions proposed by Peat and his fellow SFA board members at yesterday's agm were defeated.
The member clubs rejected the idea of sanctions being imposed for failure to meet licensing criteria and also a proposal that protests over ineligible players in Scottish Cup ties, such as the one which saw Brechin City thrown out of this season's tournament, would have to be made no later than 15 minutes before a tie kicked off.
A motion that pitch inspections for Scottish Cup ties take place no later than four hours before kick-off was passed and will come into force next season.
The full article contains 574 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
