Dundee FC CEO calls for reform within Scottish football

Fri 5th Nov 2010 | Football Club Administration

Dundee Football Club chief executive, Harry MacLean is hopeful that the club will be out of administration by the New Year and is calling for major reform within Scottish football.

Speaking exclusively to a Different League, MacLean said he was hopeful of taking the club out of administration and keeping the current squad together.

“The immediate plan is to get through to Xmas and hopefully be out of administration by that point with the help of the supporters, the business community or other investors. If that can happen and we can keep the squad together we will be able to compete with the other teams in our league” Mclean said.

The club were deducted 25 points by the Scottish Football League (SFL) and now face a player transfer embargo after it was forced into administration in mid-October with tax debts of £420,000.

The decision to take the club into administration is one that McLean said was inevitable to prevent them from disappearing altogether.  

“Administration was the only option available to us to prevent that and to complete our fixtures, in effect maintaining the integrity of the league”.

However, MacLean was unhappy about the way in which SFL took the decision to dock the club 25 points.

“The verdict itself is not in any interest of Scottish football as it is clearly designed to relegate Dundee FC this season and there have been numerous top people within the game, including Walter Smith, arguing that this is lunacy. I think the SFL have made a grave error in judgment here which could accelerate a split in the game”.

And his grievances didn’t stop there calling for reform within Scottish football.

“David Longmuir (Chief Executive of the Scottish Football League) he has now been involved in 3 administrations since taking office in 2007. That doesn't show me that the SFL have been actively looking for solutions to avoid the problem, preferring instead to ignore the clear financial issues within the league structure. 

“What is certainly required is some sort of restructure of the game. There are perhaps 16 to 18 genuinely full time professional teams who want to compete at the highest level they can, but unfortunately at any one time 6 to 8 of those will be stuck in the SFL with one chance a year of getting out.

“The product is declining and attendances suffering as a result. They are governed by a Board whose agenda in life may be entirely different to their own. It's probably time for a single governing body that understands the needs of all the clubs in the system and can adapt. We have the SFA, SPL and SFL in a country this size; it's incredible to any outsider and can't be justified in any sensible way”.

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