CRISIS-HIT Gretna will field a team at Aberdeen today after the Scottish Premier League came to their rescue – but captain Paul Murray will play no part.
Administrators who are now running the cash-strapped club are understood to have secured some of the £100,000 they were seeking in a cash advance from the SPL after a meeting yesterday.
That will allow some bills to be paid, and will finance trans
port to the game.
A spokesman for the SPL said: "Gretna are a member club of the SPL and we are doing what we can to support Gretna. Our overwhelming aim in all this is to make sure they can fulfil the rest of their fixtures."
But Gretna, whose very existence is on the line after millionaire backer Brooks Mileson withdrew funding, will field a beleaguered side for the game at Pittodrie. After every member of the playing staff was told they were free to go this week, several have decided not to take part tomorrow.
The side will be without young goalkeeper Greg Fleming, midfielder Nicky Deverdics, skipper Murray and defender Chris Innes, who are all refusing to play for the stricken team.
A spokesman for the club confirmed caretaker manager Mick Wadsworth would fill the gaps with players from the under-19 team.
PFA Scotland chief executive Fraser Wishart explained: "The players are still stuck in limbo as they have been for a number of weeks now. The situation there is pretty bleak and everybody wants the club to survive, but these players have got to look after themselves as individuals as well, as many of them have mortgages and families to look after.
"There is some goodwill there but it is an individual decision for the players if they want to take part or not.
"The administrators did say they wouldn't ask the players or any employee in any firm to work if he couldn't guarantee they were getting paid.
"It's very difficult for footballers because, if the club does survive, some of these players might want to move on to other clubs and obviously they have to weigh up the pros and cons of that. They might pick up an injury that stops them getting a club elsewhere.
"It also emerged yesterday that an Irish consortium – fronted by former Carlisle manager Roddy Collins – may be preparing a bid to buy out the club. Collins was reported by the BBC to have said he and members of the property developers the McMullen Group will meet administrators at Raydale Park on Tuesday to discuss options.
Any new owner would also face a £350,000 tax bill but administrator David Elliot, of Wilson Field Ltd, appears determined to give Gretna every opportunity to continue until the end of the season.
The SPL will look into the Gretna crisis to see whether anything can be learned, but they insist firm regulations would be difficult to impose.
The full article contains 496 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
