This sense of unfairness is only heightened when you look at the prize money received by the 1st and 2nd finishers in League One which, as was widely predicted, were Rangers and Dunfermline – two big clubs who have undergone financial troubles of late and could compete at the top level once again with a little help. These positions earn a lot more money for clubs this season than they have before, but the rest of the league saw very little in the way of extra cash. There’s a touch of nepotism about it that I don’t like. In a 42-team league, the SPFL should be looking to ensure that all teams are getting the best deal whilst being fair to other clubs.
So, I figured out a fairer way of distributing the cash whilst keeping the intention of what they were going for. I adjusted the total percentage of the prize pool that each league received so that they worked out as round numbers and gave the lower leagues a little more. Each Premiership club would then receive the same share of the Premiership prize pool as they do at the moment. I averaged out the share of the prize money for positions in the Championship, League One and League Two so that no team received an unnatural financial advantage:
| Pos. | Prem | C’Ship | League 1 | League 2 | Avg of Last 3 |
| 1 | 16.375% | 16.784% | 17.399% | 11.189% | 15.124% |
| 2 | 11.691% | 14.910% | 14.652% | 10.956% | 13.506% |
| 3 | 9.943% | 13.037% | 9.646% | 10.723% | 11.135% |
| 4 | 8.772% | 11.163% | 8.852% | 10.489% | 10.168% |
| 5 | 8.188% | 10.461% | 8.700% | 10.256% | 9.805% |
| 6 | 7.603% | 8.197% | 8.547% | 10.023% | 8.922% |
| 7 | 7.193% | 7.494% | 8.394% | 9.790% | 8.560% |
| 8 | 6.842% | 6.713% | 8.242% | 9.324% | 8.093% |
| 9 | 6.725% | 6.011% | 7.936% | 8.858% | 7.602% |
| 10 | 6.140% | 5.230% | 7.631% | 8.392% | 7.084% |
| 11 | 5.556% | ||||
| 12 | 4.971% |
With these percentages, and assuming the prize pool stays exactly the same as it did this season, this is how I would envisage a fairer split of the cash in our game (with current prize money on the left and proposed prize money on the right):
Premiership
| Pos. | Curr. Prize | Curr. Share | Prop. Prize | Prop. Share | Change |
| 1 | £2,405,514 | 13.390% | £2,353,468 | 13.1% | -2.16% |
| 2 | £1,717,454 | 9.560% | £1,680,295 | 9.4% | -2.16% |
| 3 | £1,460,555 | 8.130% | £1,428,955 | 8.0% | -2.16% |
| 4 | £1,288,629 | 7.173% | £1,260,748 | 7.0% | -2.16% |
| 5 | £1,202,757 | 6.695% | £1,176,734 | 6.6% | -2.16% |
| 6 | £1,116,884 | 6.217% | £1,092,719 | 6.1% | -2.16% |
| 7 | £1,056,701 | 5.882% | £1,033,838 | 5.8% | -2.16% |
| 8 | £1,005,142 | 5.595% | £983,395 | 5.5% | -2.16% |
| 9 | £987,895 | 5.499% | £966,521 | 5.4% | -2.16% |
| 10 | £902,023 | 5.021% | £882,507 | 4.9% | -2.16% |
| 11 | £816,150 | 4.543% | £798,492 | 4.4% | -2.16% |
| 12 | £730,277 | 4.065% | £714,477 | 4.0% | -2.16% |
| TOTAL | £14,689,981 | 81.769% | £14,372,150 | 80.0% | -2.16% |
Championship
| Pos. | Curr. Prize | Curr. Share | Prop. Prize | Prop. Share | Change |
| 1 | £386,248 | 2.150% | £326,045 | 1.81% | -15.59% |
| 2 | £343,132 | 1.910% | £291,165 | 1.62% | -15.14% |
| 3 | £300,016 | 1.670% | £240,052 | 1.34% | -19.99% |
| 4 | £256,900 | 1.430% | £219,210 | 1.22% | -14.67% |
| 5 | £240,731 | 1.340% | £211,389 | 1.18% | -12.19% |
| 6 | £188,633 | 1.050% | £192,350 | 1.07% | +1.97% |
| 7 | £172,464 | 0.960% | £184,530 | 1.03% | +7.00% |
| 8 | £154,499 | 0.860% | £174,473 | 0.97% | +12.93% |
| 9 | £138,331 | 0.770% | £163,881 | 0.91% | +18.47% |
| 10 | £120,366 | 0.670% | £152,727 | 0.85% | +26.89% |
| TOTAL | £2,301,320 | 12.810% | £2,155,822 | 12.00% | -6.32% |
League One
| Pos. | Curr. Prize | Curr. Share | Prop. Prize | Prop. Share | Change |
| 1 | £102,401 | 0.570% | £149,437 | 0.83% | +45.93% |
| 2 | £86,232 | 0.480% | £133,451 | 0.74% | +54.76% |
| 3 | £56,769 | 0.316% | £110,024 | 0.61% | +93.81% |
| 4 | £52,099 | 0.290% | £100,471 | 0.56% | +92.85% |
| 5 | £51,200 | 0.285% | £96,887 | 0.54% | +89.23% |
| 6 | £50,302 | 0.280% | £88,160 | 0.49% | +75.26% |
| 7 | £49,404 | 0.275% | £84,576 | 0.47% | +71.19% |
| 8 | £48,506 | 0.270% | £79,967 | 0.45% | +64.86% |
| 9 | £46,709 | 0.260% | £75,112 | 0.42% | +60.81% |
| 10 | £44,913 | 0.250% | £70,000 | 0.39% | +55.86% |
| TOTAL | £588,535 | 3.276% | £988,085 | 5.50% | +67.89% |
League Two
| Pos. | Curr. Prize | Curr. Share | Prop. Prize | Prop. Share | Change |
| 1 | £43,116 | 0.240% | £67,926 | 0.38% | +57.54% |
| 2 | £42,218 | 0.235% | £60,659 | 0.34% | +43.68% |
| 3 | £41,320 | 0.230% | £50,011 | 0.28% | +21.03% |
| 4 | £40,421 | 0.225% | £45,669 | 0.25% | +12.98% |
| 5 | £39,523 | 0.220% | £44,039 | 0.25% | +11.43% |
| 6 | £38,625 | 0.215% | £40,073 | 0.22% | +3.75% |
| 7 | £37,727 | 0.210% | £38,444 | 0.21% | +1.90% |
| 8 | £35,930 | 0.200% | £36,348 | 0.20% | +1.16% |
| 9 | £34,134 | 0.190% | £34,142 | 0.19% | +0.02% |
| 10 | £32,337 | 0.180% | £31,818 | 0.18% | -1.60% |
| TOTAL | £385,351 | 2.145% | £449,130 | 2.50% | +16.55% |
Although all Premiership and all but one Championship team would take a slight hit, the benefits for the rest of the game are huge. Taking a small percentage from the teams at the top end up making a big difference to the balance sheets of those at the bottom. This would ensure ample cash for the teams in the lower reaches to develop, whilst not depriving those at the top from the funds to keep them going either.
The SPFL have taken steps in the right direction to make Scottish football a little fairer. They only need to take a few more before they’ve actually achieved their goal.