Raith Rovers chairman calls for promotion and prize money as coronavirus puts club in financial jeopardy

The postponement of all upcoming fixtures – including this Saturday’s derby against East Fife and the upcoming Tunnock’s Caramel Wafer Challenge Cup final against Inverness Caledonian Thistle – has left the League One leaders with a significant financial shortfall.

With no income stream for the foreseeable future, and wages still to be paid, the club is facing an extended period of financial uncertainty.

“We have a problem – a big problem – but we’re not alone in that,” Clark told the Press.

“We’ve got difficulties this month, never mind looking three or four months ahead. We can’t even predict that at the moment.

“I’ve told the staff and will be telling the players that, one way or another, we are committed to paying the wages this month. We will find a solution.”

One of the answers, Clark believes, would be for the SPFL to advance prize money for the postponed Challenge Cup final, as well as league position payments based on the current standings.

“That might be a tricky thing to work out, but they should be able to do something with that,” Clark added.

“My view that I have expressed to the SPFL is that they know two teams are in the final, one will get £25,000 and one will get £40,000.

“Why not pay out £25,000 to the two teams just now, then we’ll play for the remaining £15,000 if the game goes ahead, and if it doesn’t go ahead, we’ll just split the £15,000 right down the middle? That would help us considerably.”

The need for an urgent source of income was highlighted when the club announced a crowdfunding appeal this week, setting a £25,000 target for online donations via a Just Giving page.

An overwhelming initial response saw the club hit £12,000 within 24 hours of the launch on Tuesday. The total now stands at £21,500.

Clark added: “That’s fantastic, and we really welcome that.

“The caveat is that I’m very conscious that a lot of our fans are possibly facing economic difficulties themselves, with people either being laid off or made redundant, and their first priority has to be to look after themselves. 

“But anybody who is willing to give to Raith would be very, very welcome.”

When asked if the situation could lead the club towards administration, Clark stressed that directors would do what they could to prevent such a scenario.

“There’s no doubt if the crunch comes directors will put more in, but there’s a limit,” he said.

“This season alone, directors have put tens of thousands of pounds in to keep the club viable. Now with no income at all, apart from what we might get from above, we’re in real dire straits.

“A delay in HMRC payments would help us considerably, as well as utility bills.

“We just paid a big gas and electricity bill this week so we would hope going forward, people like Scottish Power would be understanding of the situation and let us delay for two or three months because we just won’t have the money.”

Another factor of the outbreak is how to resolve the issues of promotion and relegation if the season is unable to be completed.

That decision will lie with the governing bodies, the SFA and SPFL, but Clark believes the current league positions should stand, with Raith promoted to the Championship.

“There’s all this speculation about various options for the leagues, but I think they have to act on the basis of facts,” he said.

“We are where we are, we know what games have been played, and in our case, it’s over 75 per cent of our games this season.

“There’s no point speculating about what might happen in the remaining eight games, you have to base your decisions on solid facts.

“We are top of the league, and we should be named as being promoted.

“The other option is to change the leagues a bit by promoting two teams from each league, and bring in Kelty Hearts and Brora Rangers to make them up to 12.

“They’d need to work the details out, but it’s possible and we would support either of these options.

“The option we wouldn’t support is just saying the league is null and void, which would leave us in League One.

“That would be a wrong decision and we just could not accept that.

“All the effort put into 28 games played so far, can you really turn around and say, ‘sorry, all that effort is for nothing, you just stay where you are?’ I just don’t agree with that at all.

“The other option bandied about is having time to play games later in the season, well, the whole thing about having players out of contract is our problem.

“We would have a total of nine players in June. Two of them are 16 years old and we’d have no goalkeeper.

“We would be unable to field a team, so where does that leave us, and where does that leave the fixtures?

“You’ve got the health reasons too. They are still predicting the peak of this virus will be in May/June, so are we going to start playing fixtures in July which should have been played this season, whereas we should be looking forward to the next season by then?

“For those two reasons we would oppose any idea of having to play the remaining eight games.”

Any decision to settle the leagues based on current standings could be faced with legal challenges from the likes of Hearts, who have vowed to take the SPFL to court if they are relegated in such circumstances.

“There’s going to be winners and losers, and not everybody is going to agree, but for the good of the game, the only rational decision that can be made is to base it on the facts of the moment,” Clark added.

“Our view as a club is that there are two good options – either promote and relegate as it stands, or increase the level of the leagues, which would save Hearts and others from relegation.

“There’s going to be some collateral damage no matter what we do, it’s about minimising it, and to me, this is the logical thing to do.”