Dundee United owner Mark Ogren says cost-cutting measures amid the coronavirus pandemic are necessary and called for financial assistance from the government for Scottish football: "Is Dundee United going to survive? Yes it’s going to survive, but it could get messy"
Thursday 29 October 2020 18:39, UK
Dundee United boss Mickey Mellon insists "there is nothing worrying about this situation" with the club are set to implement cost-cutting measures amid the ongoing financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
Mellon also said reports claiming players and coaching staff have been asked to accept 20 per cent wage cuts for the rest of the season are premature.
The United manager said: "We are not immune to this pandemic. We are now in discussions to come to a place where we can help the football club move through these times.
"There's no big dramas here and there's nothing that's worrying me about this situation other than we just want to get to a place where we can just focus on football.
"We will do what is necessary to keep the football club moving forward until we get through this pandemic.
"We have accepted we need to do something and we are now in discussion as to what we have to do or don't do in order to help the club get through this.
"There's been no fuss about that, nobody is kicking back about that and we'll get on with it. I don't know anything about the cut percentages yet"
United recently signed internationals Marc McNulty and Jeando Fuchs but owner Mark Ogren has signalled significant cuts are necessary.
The American told The Courier: "The first phase we had budgeted for so we anticipated it but we didn't budget for this second phase.
"We expected some fans back. As a result, we're doing a total review of the club's finances and we're going to be implementing some cost-cutting measures for the short term and the medium term to counteract what is happening."
Ogren called for financial assistance from the government for Scottish football and for limited crowds to be allowed back in grounds but insisted the club is "absolutely not up for sale".
He added: "What I can't accept is the government saying we can't have any of those fans in our stadium without financial support to assist us. It's hurting us badly - not just us but the rest of Scottish football.
"I've got limited funds. We need to figure this out. But I don't want to scare people into thinking we're going away because that is not the case. We're going to figure this out but we'll need help from the government, our fans and everybody at the club.
"Is Dundee United going to survive? Yes it's going to survive, but it could get messy."
