For the Good of the Game? Resolving an Existential Crisis in Scottish Football

Abstract

Unsurprisingly, the Covid-19 pandemic has had major ramifications for sport leagues, events, and organizations worldwide. But in one relatively small sporting arena — men’s professional football in Scotland — the implications have been extraordinary, resulting in something akin to an existential crisis. The aim of this chapter is to explore how the structure and governance of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) was itself detrimental to Scottish football’s response to the pandemic, contributing to resultant damage to the game. In particular, the chapter focuses on the repercussions of the competition for power and control among participants in the arena of Scottish professional football, most importantly the detrimental impact on trust within the membership organization.