PETER DONALD has been at the helm of the Scottish Football League for the past 17 years in his role as Secretary.
In that time Donald has presided over a raft of changes and endured many headaches dealing in a conciliatory manner with the various factions in the game.
Without doubt the most stressful part of his job concerns finance and the need to keep generating fresh revenue to ensure the future wellbeing of those clubs outwith the SPL.
Donald's latest challenge involves finding a new sponsor to replace Bell's, who have intimated that they will not continue to provide crucial financial backing beyond this season after a long association with the SFL. But Donald is optimistic that he will have a new SFL sponsor in place by the start of next season.
He said: "We are currently trying to identify a new sponsor and we have had some nibbles of interest. But you do not move from one sponsor straight to another without doing a bit of trawling first and sponsorship in any sport is difficult to come by.
"But while we don't have a successor to Bell's lined up at present we are in discussions with a number of companies and I think there is still a big attraction for commercial entities in terms of the geographical spread they can achieve by becoming involved with the SFL.
"Our clubs stretch from the far north to the borders. The accusation used to be levelled at us that we were a Central belt organisation and there might have been some truth in that. But it is certainly not the case now and hopefully we will have a new sponsor in place for the start of next season."
Donald is also confident of persuading CIS Insurance to renew their sponsorship of the League Cup.
He revealed: "We have been in discussions with CIS Insurance since May and I think I can say that I am optimistic of achieving renewal before the semi-finals around January-February time."
Donald's hand has been strengthened by a steady increase in attendances at a time when many of the bigger clubs are feeling the pinch.
He said: "Crowds are up although it is difficult to say at what point the rise is an established pattern. But over the past few years there has been a steady growth in attendance figures.
"There has been growth season on season for the past five years and I guess a businessman would say that the 10% increase we have achieved is reasonable.
"This year we will probably see a further rise. That is not necessarily happening at First Division level but we have other areas of growth, with Morton and Gretna providing encouraging examples.
"There are pockets of real activity and Cappielow is the classic case in point and I have no doubt that attendances would increase even further if Morton were to move up another division.
"Interestingly, we commissioned market research recently and discovered that people who go to Scottish League games for the first time find that the performance and enjoyment levels are greater than they had anticipated. In other words, the reality is better than the perception."
Donald, appointed SFL Secretary in 1989 after a 20 year stint at the SFA, on average now works fewer hours than the 60 or 70 a week that used to be the norm.
But his job and that of his staff of nine full-time and three part-time employees is far from being just nine to five.
He still finds time to play five-a-sides, explaining that there is no point in him growing up at this stage in his life.
But while he is not complaining, Donald admits that the job doesn't get any easier.
"I think one of the dangers for me is the length of time I have been doing the job," he said. "I was listening to criticisms of Tony Blair the other day when people were saying that he has stopped listening to others because he has been Prime Minister for so long and thinks he knows all the answers.
"I think maybe I have reached a similar stage. I am not saying that I know it all, far from it, but I do know the debate and the challenge is to find different solutions to generate finance because money is so tight.
"For example there might be openings for our member clubs through the developments in new technology.
"There seems little prospect of us getting Sky to cover our games but there is increasing competition among media moguls in other areas and they might be interested in becoming involved in promoting SFL fixtures."
While Donald admits that not every day is a joy, he insists that his passion and love of the game remains as great as ever.
"It's what surrounds the game that sometimes jaundices your view of football and affects the pleasure aspect," he confessed. "I would love to go to a game at five to three on a Saturday, watch the action, and then leave. But it's not like that, I'm afraid.
"Most times it's just another day at the office as it were when you walk into the various boardrooms and have to deal with the politics of the game.
"The politics of football are often a difficult thing to handle because some directors struggle with the mix involved in the game and occasionally get drawn into antagonisms that are unnecessary and occasionally divisive, in particular with the media.
"We also often spend a lot of time re-inventing the wheel and that can be frustrating. By that I mean we revisit issues that have been discussed and dealt with previously. But on the positive side that is caused by the introduction of new faces who come with fresh ideas.
"Sometimes football doesn't do itself any favours the way certain situations are handled. But the perception that one body is the answer to many of the game's ills is far from accurate. The reality is that we need the SFL, the SFA and the SPL because we are all doing different things."
Donald continued: "I do derive great pleasure from watching the commitment of people who want to see their team do well. You don't get the same surge of excitement watching teams that you don't have a direct link with. But when I was a wee boy I supported Johnstone Burgh because my dad was manager and I think back to those days when they were 'my team' and I understand what it feels like to be a fan.
"There is also the pleasurable aspect of staging a great occasion such as the CIS Insurance Cup Final and seeing our various Leagues being competitive. I suppose, too, there is great satisfaction in landing a commercial deal that helps provide the clubs with a degree of financial security."
Donald is keen not to sing his own praises but he is genuinely proud of the harmony that exists within the walls of SFL headquarters at Hampden.
He said: ""We have a staff who have worked hard for the good of Scottish football for a long time and we have created a positive working environment that has stood the test of time and I take great pleasure from that.
"I guess that by the time I am tilted out of here I will have done 40 years as an administrator in the game so I suppose I have learned a few things along the way.
"I am also rather pleased that the SFL managed to stabilise so well after the loss of clubs to the SPL. I think, too, the selection of new clubs based on information collated here leading to the election of such as Inverness Caledonian Thistle, Gretna, Ross County and Peterhead to the SFL was handled well."
Meanwhile, Donald's vision for the future involves creating greater financial security for the clubs after admitting that there is an increased level of threat.
"All we can really hope for is that our central commercial agreements contribute to the stability of our member clubs in their efforts to move forward.
"I have tried in recent times to encourage both the SFA and SPL to consider setting up a professional football business unit to enable us to work together in certain areas of the game with an expert group handling aspects of the business in which we all have an interest.
"Regrettably, that hasn't materialised but that is not to say that it won't happen in the future because the various bodies no longer spend time trying to score points off each other.
"So that would seem a reasonable ambition in trying to pull together and do things more sensibly.
"One of the first things I did when I came here from the SFA was to get together with Jim Farry and Bill Wilson to set up a joint commercial department so potential investors in football only had to ring one door bell as opposed to a scrum of SFL and SFA officials fighting one another over potential business investment and that has worked well.
"We are also continuing to lobby Government because of the recent changes in the gaming laws implemented by the European Union that have impacted on clubs who have lost a large part of their income as a consequence of these changes.
"The fee paid by the bookmakers for fixed-odds betting is also under threat and that is a big issue. We start every season with nothing in the bank and have to work hard to generate revenue, every penny of which is distributed among the clubs.
"So if we lose money from these sources it will affect clubs and their ability to pay players and it isn't difficult to imagine what sort of impact that will have on the game as a whole."
Interview by Jim Black
(President of The Scottish Football Writers' Association)
.png){kind=logo}
