BBC Sport football

Continuing his series on issues affecting Scottish Football, BBC Scotland's Phil Goodlad looks at whether league reconstruction and club mergers would stave off the financial crisis affecting our national game.

By Phil Goodlad

Ferguson believes smaller clubs could survive with better facilities

"Welcome to Glebe Park, the home of Brechin City," said Ken Ferguson as he proudly showed me around his second home.

Ever since he was a boy, he's been going to Glebe Park, but now he visits as club chairman.

"It means a great deal to the people of Brechin," said Ferguson.

"We've been here for over 100 years with the philosophy of surviving year on year and improving year on year to serve the community with football."

Along the road from Glebe Park stands Gayfield, home to Arbroath FC and one of four lower league clubs in Angus.

Arbroath secretary Gary Callon explained: "It's a community club. We're not about the money.

"If we get a gate of around 400 and Arbroath win, we would probably pay more out in wages and bonuses than we take through the turnstiles."

This is the dilemma that faces Scottish football clubs in the lower leagues.

Do they set themselves up as a winning machine, cutting upwards through the leagues, or as a type of sporting social club?

According to one finance expert, they soon might not have that choice.

David Glenn is a football finance expert with PriceWaterhouseCoopers and he's predicting a grim season ahead for some of our clubs.

"It really is a distinct possibility that clubs could be liquidated this season - they could disappear," said Glenn.

The credit crunch, the collapse of Setanta and ever-tightening balance sheets are all squeezing the life out of our game.

"Look at Livingston, Clyde and numerous other sides all struggling for one reason or another," said Glenn.

"It's a very scary time for Scottish football.

Would I support an Angus United? No. It would be very difficult to build up an identity for fans to connect with." Brechin chairman Ken Ferguson

Playing a game of fantasy Scottish football could provide the only solution to such a dire outlook.

With a blank sheet of paper, you wouldn't have the current set-up. You'd probably go for two divisions of 16.

"There are some bizarre situations also where three or four clubs are very closely linked geographically.

"If you were starting again, they should really be replaced by one."

When thinking mergers in Scottish football, the mind jumps back 20 years when Wallace Mercer tried to unify Hearts and Hibernian, stirring up the type of emotion that only football fans can explain.

Naturally, those connected with clubs ripe for merging are aghast at the idea.

"Would I support an Angus United? No," said Ferguson.

"It would be very difficult to build up an identity for fans to connect with."

So, if not mergers, what about sharing facilities, possibly multi-purpose stadiums?

It's an avenue Glenn thinks clubs have to follow.

"Some clubs only use their ground for two hours a day, every second week for around two thirds of the year," he said.

"What other business would do that? Scottish Football needs to look at multi-sports, multi-clubs and multi-functional stadiums."

Abroath's Gary Callon says his club is not about the money

If AC Milan and Inter can share, why not teams in Angus, Fife, Clackmannanshire even Glasgow?

Because, according to Ferguson, demand would outstrip a shared regional stadium.

"We have 15 junior teams, not to mention athletics and rugby clubs," said the Brechin chairman.

"It's the same in every other town; we're all crying out for better facilities for the town, not the region."

Those who can view sport with an analytical mind cannot deliver a more frightening warning to Scottish football.

Adapt or die is the motto for our game.

The problem, though, is that, to fans and those connected with football, such rational analysis is an alien concept.

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