Coronavirus: Scottish football authorities forward £1.5m of funding to help with financial costs of pandemic
- Published
SFA president Rod Petrie (left) says the money will be of 'great support' to clubs
The Scottish football authorities are to share £1.5m of funding among clubs to help stem the financial effects of the coronavirus outbreak.
The cash is from Club Licensing and Club Academy Scotland award payments which were due at the end of the year.
Clubs in Scotland rely heavily on matchday income.
The money will be awarded based on licensing levels, and not necessarily split equally among the 42 clubs.
"Given the financial uncertainty faced by clubs, we have looked at areas of distribution where we can accelerate and pay now, rather than wait to pay on the usual distribution dates," said Scottish FA president Rod Petrie.
"The combined amount forward funded in this way is approximately £1.5m, which we believe will be of great support to clubs who face uncertainty and, worse still, a significant loss of revenue as a result of the impact of coronavirus in Scotland."
On Tuesday, SFA chief executive Ian Maxwell said the Joint Response Group set up to consider the effects of the coronavirus, were considering how payments could be forwarded to clubs.
Premiership club Hearts have already asked all full-time staff to take a 50% wage cut to avoid redundancies.
League Two club Elgin City had told BBC Scotland it could go out of business by the end of May without financial support and welcomed the funding, while Partick Thistle and Raith Rovers have promoted pages set up by fans to donate money to ease the financial burden of not playing football.
Cowdenbeath say they cannot sell season tickets for next season until what happens to the current campaign becomes clearer.