Dons chairman calls on SFA, SPL and SFL to work through financial crisis together

ABERDEEN chairman Stewart Milne fears that Scottish football clubs are placing their future in jeopardy by continuing to live beyond their means during a deepening global financial crisis.

Milne believes that clubs' failure to adjust to the current economic climate has come at a dangerous time, because in his opinion the game's governing bodies have failed to co-operate on a long-term survival plan.

Milne wants to see the Scottish Football Association, Scottish Premier League and Scottish Football League put aside their differences and come up with a blueprint to save the game.

The personal experience of someone who recently received a CBE for services to the house building industry makes Milne the perfect person to take a rounded view of the perils that lie ahead. As well as laying off hundreds of staff at the Stewart Milne Group because of the worsening recession, he has spent several years trying to keep Aberdeen Football Club afloat.

It was only his personal guarantees to the bank that allowed one of the biggest clubs in the country to remain operational with debts of over £12million, and even their future is far from secure despite recent improvements on and off the pitch.

Last season's record operating profits of £2.3million helped to cut the debt but were built on appearances in the semi-final of both national knockout competitions and the last 32 of the Uefa Cup. So far this season has been less successful on the pitch, with losses projected even before the threat of diminishing attendances as non-season ticket holders decide where to spend their money.

There's also the fact that Aberdeen need to finance the move to a new stadium in the next five years but Milne's concerns are far wider than just those affecting his own club.

The Aberdeen chairman believes the SFA, SPL and SFL must pull together much more effectively if football is going to have any chance of flourishing in the foreseeable future.

He said: "The reality is everyone is being hit with the current downturn whether that is the fans coming through the turnstiles deciding where they will spend their money right through to the corporate support doing likewise.

"I believe that we still have a long way to go in terms of getting our act together in taking a long-term outlook in where we should be going in Scottish football. There is a lot of scope for the three organisations to work a lot more effectively together for the good of the game.

"Not necessarily merging in to one body because the SFA has a very distinct role in terms of overseeing the whole of the game in Scotland. There is an argument that we would benefit from fewer bodies outside the SFA but to me that's not the burning issue.

"To me it's the incapability to get together on where we would want to see our game being in the next five to ten years.

"We need to work effectively to establish how we can get there in terms of the restructuring that will be needed to achieve that.

"I don't think we have a common goal and I don't think we will work effectively together to give us a fighting chance of getting Scottish football lifted to a higher level."

Milne, a former SPL board member, may be pessimistic about the future of Scottish football in general but remains much more optimistic about the way ahead for his own club at the start of a vital few years.

The feasibility report into the proposed move to a new community stadium will be considered by Aberdeen City Council at a meeting on 11 February with the chairman confident the project will get the green light.

Two sites are being considered; Kings Links which is across from Pittodrie, and Loriston on the south side of the city, and given the timescale involved Milne is not currently worried about the financial implications.

What he wants to see initially is a statement of ambition to build a facility that is vital for the future of the football club but should also take in to consideration the prestige it would bring to the area as a whole.

He added: "I would like to think that the funding issue can be avoided until we actually have a tangible project to fund in terms of getting the planning permission to move ahead which could be two to three years.

"Whatever happens Pittodrie is not an option as it's getting progressively more expensive to maintain the stadium and the Uefa rules that are coming in means we have to move.

"If we want to be in European football the reality is we need to be in a new stadium or we will have to play our matches at a stadium outwith Aberdeen.

"We have to be out of here within five years and how we fund that is undoubtedly going to be a big challenge but we have to look down the line a bit.

"I think potentially the city has a great deal going for it as there are a lot of major projects that can be delivered over the next three to five years – the Donald Trump development (a £1billion golf resort at Balmedie Beach], the Paul Lawrie golf project (at Blairs Golf Course], the western peripheral route and a major extension to the airport.

"We need to make sure that the value of a community stadium is made clear to the people of the north-east of Scotland."