The front page story of the Press and Journal on Friday (10th April) carried headlines including "Death knell for Highland League" and "Football clubs under threat from taxman's red card".

The article concerned related to the news that clubs could go out of business because of a decision by HM Revenue and Customs that has made it compulsory for all clubs to pay their players the minimum wage, as well as for time spent travelling and training.

Clubs in the Scot-Ads Highland League and lower divisions of the Scottish Football League are likely to be hit hardest, having to pay players possibly triple or even quadruple their current wage.

So what is the Jags view?  Buckie Thistle president MARK DUNCAN today said: "There is no doubt, in my opinion, that this new ruling could spell the end for a number of club's within the league. The reality of the situation is that most club's now have to contend with not one but two, new major pieces of legislation, the introduction of this new "minimum wage" as well as "club criteria".

"Reports in yesterday's press suggest that a meeting will be called later this week to discuss the implication's of the "minimum wage" legislation.

"In regard to "national club licensing" we were asked to give our opinion on this and wrote to the SFA in December, clearly stating that "the introduction and enforcement of this new criteria - could spell the end for a number of club's within the Highland League. 

"One of the requirements in this new criteria is that all club's have a "UEFA sized pitch", what do club's in the Highland League need that for?   None of us will be playing in the UEFA cup! 

"At the Highland League Management Committee meeting in February our club was one of five who voted to put this new legislation "on hold", especially when you consider the current financial climate.

"Another 10 club's however, voted against this, and it is my opinion that they were misled by what they were told.  The minutes from this meeting (dated 19th February 2009) clearly state that "it was proposed that we wait for the facts to be available after the SFA meeting on 9th April and then we discuss".   At last tuesday's meeting we were however then all told that the club's would have no opportunity whatsoever to view the document before making any decision, and that all club's would now have to comply with this new legislation whether they liked it or not!

"That being the case, why were all the club's not told this at the meeting in February?   If they had then the voting and the outcome could and probably would have been completely different.

"Some of the people making these decision's are completely out of touch with reality.  It is a big enough struggle for most these days just trying to raise the funds required to keep their clubs going throughout the season.  People are losing their jobs, less money then comes through the gate and this also results in a loss of sponsorship money etc, so running a football club for everybody is going to get more and more difficult every year from now on.

"Income through the gate for most clubs would, at best, represent 15-20% of the total sum required, with the remaining 80-85% still having to be raised through other fundraising efforts throughout the year.

"All the committee members of these clubs give up their personal time and work hard for their local club without receiving payment of any kind.  What is going to happen in the future is that club's are now going to be face even more running cost's, people are going to have to work even harder, will get fed up and will eventually walk away - then the club's will be finished altogether.  Why should people give up their personal time just working for the taxman?

"Someone has to ask where is all this money coming from?  As the clubs don't and never will have it.  There is absolutely no common sense at all to this and it certainly makes no business sense whatsoever.

"Without doubt the introduction and enforcement of this new criteria  will, along with it's increased costs,  spell the end for a number of club's within the Highland League.

"For the record, our own pitch already meet's the"UEFA" requirement, but no club, including our own, will be of any use in the future if there are not enough other club's in the league to play against."