The Scottish government has announced funding of £55m to help sports struggling amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
First minister Nicola Sturgeon says £30m will be made available to Scottish football and £20m to rugby union.
Scottish Premiership clubs will be awarded £20m of the football funding in the form of loans.
The remaining £10m for football will be grants for all levels outside the Premiership – including tiers below the SPFL and the women’s game.
Further discussions on the distribution will take place later.
The £20m for rugby will comprise of £5m in loans and £15m in grants, while ice rinks and horse racing will get £2m each.
The remaining £1m will be divided among basketball, motorsports, netball and other sports.
Sportscotland informed ministers last month the spectator sport sector had lost around £100m since March.
The national agency for sport argued support was needed to safeguard jobs and prevent insolvency.
Up to 300 fans are currently permitted to attend if an event falls within a level one area under the Scottish government’s tiered system.
Dumfries and Galloway and the Borders are moving to level one on Friday, joining the Highlands, Moray, Western Isles, Orkney and Shetland.
“We know the devastating impact the pandemic has had on spectator sports, particularly when so many sporting clubs receive a significant proportion of their income through spectators attending events,” the first minister said.
“It should be noted that top-flight English men’s football has not received financial support of this kind from the UK government.
“[The] support package taken in its entirety will be well in excess of the Barnett consequentials announced as a result of the investment announced last month by the UK government.”
‘Wonderful news’ – the reaction
Scottish Rugby and Scottish Racing both welcomed the announcement, with Perth Racecourse chief executive Hazel Peplinski describing it as “wonderful news off the back of a really really tough year”.
However, the reaction from football has been mixed. St Mirren manager Jim Goodwin said the news was “brilliant”.
He added: “Premiership clubs have more revenue than the leagues below, so I think it probably is the right way round.”
Livingston chief executive John Ward said: “I’d have been far more open to grants but by the same token football is being allowed to function just now.”
And Aberdeen boss Derek McInnes remarked: “It seems like a lot of money but when you spread that out over everybody that has got a case for it and who is going to be in need of it…
“I don’t want to sound ungrateful, but it is not going to go the full way for us. We have still got loads to do and loads to deal with.”
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