Hibs yesterday emphatically rejected claims made in a national newspaper that the Club was seeking to carry out a play-off “cash grab.”
The claims were made in the Daily Mail by an anonymous “senior official” at another Scottish club regarding a proposal from Hibernian, Heart of Midlothian and Motherwell regarding the level of Levy paid by clubs participating in the play-off matches.
The proposal, which is due to be discussed later this month at a General Meeting of the SPFL, was issued to clubs yesterday – a day after an anonymous briefing took place with the newspaper. The proposal was drafted after full, proper and open consultation with the SPFL member clubs and discussion with the SPFL Board.
The Easter Road club insists that the article makes a number of inaccurate claims, and in particular:
- The article claims play-off cash is used largely to benefit lower league clubs – 82.5% of play-off cash is distributed to Premiership clubs.
- The article claims Hibernian could generate £1 million in gate receipts if the Club qualifies for play-off matches against Rangers and the 11th placed team in the Premiership. This figure is a poor work of fiction – any income generated is likely to be only a fraction of that amount.
Leeann Dempster, Chief Executive of Hibernian, said: “We are appalled at the way in which this has been conducted. An anonymous briefing appears to have been carefully orchestrated to ensure damaging and inaccurate coverage appears on the very day in which the SPFL circulates the proposal to member clubs.
“It is interesting that a senior club official would only speak to the Daily Mail on condition of anonymity – what have they got to hide? The anonymous briefing presents the Levy as being an issue for League 1 and League 2 clubs. The actual briefing note on Resolution 1 circulated today by the SPFL makes it plain that no club will receive less from the Play Off Levy this season than they did last season.”
“This is possible because the Board of the SPFL has negotiated a live TV broadcasting deal for the Premiership Play Off Matches – all six games could be broadcast – at a match fee which is just 10% of what clubs receive from televised Scottish Cup ties. The TV deal has been approved by the Premiership clubs. But only one Premiership club will feature and the Championship clubs whose home gates could be affected by live TV were not consulted and didn’t have a vote.”
”All clubs benefitted from the Levy last season and will continue to benefit this season. In fact, based on the league table as it stands at the moment, for winning the Premiership Celtic will get 50 times as much from the Levy as Albion Rovers will get for winning League 2. Similarly the distributions to Aberdeen (second) is 37 times the money received by Queens Park (second) in League 2.”
“It’s a neat trick for an anonymous senior club official to suggest that this resolution will be defeated by the self-interest of clubs in League 1 and League 2.”
Ms Dempster lso stressed that the debate around Play Offs was legitimate, but was not initiated by Hibernian. “The debate began in October when the Board of the SPFL sought to introduce minimum pricing for Play Off Matches and to change the Rules to state that Season Tickets were not valid.
“We disagree, because we believe Clubs should be allowed the flexibility to deal with their Season Ticket Holders as they think best. Resolution 1 has been requisitioned by three clubs – and other clubs say they support it – because the Board of the SPFL refused to amend its proposal to accommodate the point of principle.”
She stressed that the Levy was originally designed to help pay for the parachute payment made to clubs relegated, and added: “When the Parachute Payment is fully funded by the Scottish FA as it is at the moment there is no need for a Levy. In those circumstances all the Levy does is take money paid by supporters to watch the team they support and redistribute that to every other team in the league. Any club which can imagine itself in that situation would say that was unfair.”
“If the changes the Board of the SPFL want to see had applied last season, then the Premiership club relegated through the Play Offs would have received the Parachute Payment funded by the Scottish FA on one hand and would have had a sum equivalent to 25% of the Parachute Payment taken away from the other hand by the SPFL through the operation of the Levy. This is not what was intended.”
“It could be argued that the Levy is not required at all when the Parachute Payments are fully funded. It is right that there should be a debate about how that funding might happen moving forward when the Scottish FA support ends.
“However, the requisitioning clubs have suggested that the Levy still applies but at half the current rate, given the new television income. Every club in the league continues to benefit and as the figures pan out for this season, no club will receive any less.”
“We are looking for a balanced debate and fairness.”
John graduated from Telford College in 2010 with an HNC in Practical Journalism and since then he worked for the North Edinburgh News, The Southern Reporter, the Irish News Review and The Edinburgh Reporter. In addition he has been published in the Edinburgh Evening News and the Hibernian FC Programme.
