Scottish Premiership clubs Hibs, Hearts, Aberdeen, Dundee and Dundee United task Deloitte with finding ways to increase league revenues
Scottish Premiership football clubs have commissioned Deloitte to conduct a review of the league with a view to unlocking new revenue.
Aberdeen, Dundee, Dundee United, Heart of Midlothian and Hibernian say they would like to see annual distributions increase from £27m to at least £50m a year by 2026.
The five clubs say they will make the findings public at the end of the six-month study, which has been approved by league organisers the SPFL.
They added the “strategic and holistic review” would “focus on identifying ways of unlocking significant additional revenues for the benefit of all in professional Scottish club football.
“As a group of clubs, who will spend around £600m over the next 10 years (in both operations and infrastructure) we believe a clear vision and strategy with measurable goals is needed if Scottish football is to continue to grow and prosper on and off the pitch, and ultimately compete with similar-sized countries and leagues across Europe.”
Revenues in the Scottish Premiership are a fraction of those in the English top-flight, where clubs share £2.5bn every year.
The review, to be carried out by Deloitte’s Sports Business Group, will be split into four areas: commercial growth; the SPFL brand; governance and structure; and strategic projects.
“This is not about redistribution of existing income sources in favour of so-called ‘bigger clubs’,” they said in a joint statement.
“The clubs are seeking to unlock new revenues and grow the Scottish game as a whole where ‘a rising tide lifts all ships’.
“We believe that unlocking new revenues will allow us to, amongst other things, produce better, more technically gifted players, to compete in European Club competitions and at national level.”