The SFA have failed to address the situation that saw St Mirren denied a license to play in next season’s European competitions, even if the Paisley club go on to lift the Scottish Cup.

The news broke today that even if St Mirren do indeed win the cup they cannot take part in next season’s playoff for the Europa League and also the new UEFA Conference league.

With the safety net of this new Euro third tier, it has been estimated that going forward the Scottish Cup winners will be guaranteed around £3 million in revenue, but St Mirren will be robbed of this due to the SFA not granting them the proper license.

The report stated:

Premiership rivals Livingston, Hamilton Academical and Ross County also fail to fulfil the required criteria.

Each season the Scottish FA publishes licensing awards, with St Mirren receiving an overall ‘gold’ rating, while other top flight sides classified ‘silver’ have been granted the Uefa licence.

While the reasons for the refusal have not been divulged, the ruling can be contested.

Uefa introduced a mandatory club licensing system in 2004 to tackle issues such as financial transparency and instability, inadequate stadia, overdue payments and lack of youth investment.

Despite Scottish Football losing around three clubs within the last 20 years due to financial reasons, the SFA do not have anything like a financial fair play rule set in place.