£3 million

[Roy of the Rovers]

James Anderson has agreed to donate in excess of £3 million to the SPFL Trust. This cash shall go to Scottish clubs and communities.

[Roy of the Rovers]

“Benefactor James Anderson has donated more than £3m to help Scottish clubs during the coronavirus pandemic.

Clubs can receive a £50,000 grant if they can provide evidence of community benefit.

Anderson, a fund manager and partner with Baillie Gifford, agreed to the deal with the SPFL Trust that will see him pledge £3.125m, inclusive of gift aid.” Stv article

[Deleted]

Thought there was no strings attached. Every club is a benefit to their community.

[Roy of the Rovers]

As it’s a charity donation I presume there has to be some aspect of showing your worthiness to it. I expect Rovers would have no problem showing such evidence like the Buddy Club, kids events at Easter etc. and the like!

[stewmelrover]

So what's the catch?

[Roy of the Rovers]

No catch - the previous no-strings talk was due to the relationship the donor has with Hearts & folk were worried it was an out and out bribe for getting reconstruction.

[samtennentjnr]

spfltrust.org.uk/james_anderson_faqs/

It seems the no strings thing is mainly in relation to reconstruction. The money still has a pretty major caveat.

Can't be used for wages which will be our main outgoing. Of course its better than no money but we could end up with a great testing facility but no players / staff to test.

My only hope is that by using it to make Cliftonhill "bio-sercue" we can funnel it towards doing some necessary maintenance to the ground. 






There must be some guarantees or stipulations that come with this donation, surely? What are they?

The donation James Anderson is making to the SPFL Trust comes without qualification or preconditions relating to the future structure or governance at the SPFL.

As with any grant charitable grant, the SPFL Trust will have certain standard conditions in place, but for the avoidance of doubt these specifically relate to community benefit, and have no bearing on the future structure or governance at the SPFL.

The only major condition, is that clubs may not use their grant for the provision of staff or player salaries.

Given the likely requirements to enable a return to football, this funding is expected to be able to support work in this area of focus.

For example:

Costs associated with ensuring stadia can attain bio-secure status, enabling the resumption of football, and with it, community activity, much of which take place daily at football grounds across Scotland
Should clubs wish to purchase a Covid-19 testing system, we would expect to see equipment being made available for use to the benefit of the club’s wider community (clubs would not be expected to cover the per head cost of tests conducted by community groups using their equipment)

[mildrover]

My personal opinion only but I find this whole initiative to be hugely disappointing. I don't know James Anderson but I believe his motives were genuine and that he really wanted to help secure the future of Scottish football and help clubs to survive and take part in league football next season. He seemed to be offering the cash for clubs to do so. There was talk initially of 4 million, then 3 , then 2 million to be shared among league one and two clubs. Then the Championship were added in. Then it was 2 million among all clubs
Even through the disappointment I felt at least £50k cash will help teams like the Rovers to meet the main outgoings: wages, overheads and stadium upkeep.
But even this was not to be. Of the £3 million being donated the SPFL are taking a million to set up a new quango on floor 6 at Hampden. Just what we need at a time of crisis in Scottish football more bureaucracy. The £50k to ARFC has to be used for community activity - cant be used for wages or on  overheads. I passionately believe in community involvement and the Rovers have, for a small club, a great record in this area even though unlike many other clubs they have no paid community development workers and everything is done on a voluntary basis.
The best way of ensuring community involvement and activity would have been to share the whole £3 million to clubs, to be used by the directors who know far more about what is needed to survive than the bureaucrats on floor 6 at Hampden. At least there would then be a prospect of clubs being there to work in their communities at the end of this season!


Ronnie

[Deleted]

Well what a surprise. Disgusting behaviour once again from the blazers in charge of our game. Give the million to the clubs. Perhaps it's time leagues 1and 2 had a breakaway from this bunch of parasites.

[mildrover]

Not sure that a breakaway would be feasible Jimbo42 but when things settle down there needs to be a root and branch review of the SPFL looking at the lower leagues having more of a say and an increase in the pittance of a percentage of the monies they receive when the cake is cut up.
I agree with you that the million being syphoned off to create the new quango Scottish Football United is a disgrace and should be returned to the clubs to help them survive this crisis.
To quote from the SPFL Partnership site' Scottish Football United will bring together clubs. leagues, governing bodies, with national and local public agencies to create a focal point for future crisis planning and support. This will enable Scottish football to react and support communities quickly , and at scale.'
I have worked long enough in local government to know that this will have zero impact, will create a few other posts on floor 6 at Hampden, produce lots of paper and possibly run an annual conference. All of this while the clubs the money was meant for face going under.
As Jimbo42 says stop this nonsense now and give the money to the clubs.

Ronnie