Top flight clubs to receive £1.67m loans from sport package

By Jack Thomson and Raman Bhardwaj

Scottish Premiership clubs will each receive £1.67m in loans as part of the £55m funding package for spectator sports.

Championship clubs will be given £500,000 each in grants, while League One and Two teams will each benefit from £150,000 and £100,000 respectively.

Highland and Lowland league clubs will receive £33,000 each as part of the support, which was announced by the Scottish Government earlier this month.

The grant money is likely to land with the Scottish FA in the New Year but the governing body has agreed to cash flow 50% of those awards until they receive the government funding.

Overall loans and grants going to football clubs will amount to £30m.

A total of £25m has been set aside for other sports, including rugby, basketball and ice hockey.

In sport, only stadiums in levels zero and one of the five-tier alert system are allowed to open to a few hundred spectators. Other than the occasional events for limited numbers, stadiums have not been fully open to fans since March.

The closure of stadiums has had a significant financial impact on clubs and calls have been made for a clear timetable for the return of fans.

The First Minister acknowledged the “devastating impact” the pandemic has had on spectator sports when the funding was set out in the Scottish Parliament.