The Scottish Football Association will not be offering financial assistance to any SPL clubs should Setanta fail to fulfil its television deal, chief executive Gordon Smith admitted. "We haven't even considered it but I would doubt we would be in a position because we have our own budgets to try and meet," Smith said.

"We do give money to the clubs at the end of the year but we are not in the position to fund that level of shortfall.

"We have our own broadcasting deal which we had to make to take the game forward and this is an SPL problem, although we do see it as a problem for the game in general."

Setanta had previously asked the SPL to renegotiate the £125million four-year contract due to begin at the start of the 2010-11 season.

Smith added: "I am obviously concerned about it because it is a major factor in the game these days, the deals that come in from broadcasters.

"I really do want to see this deal settled, whether it's Setanta who actually are still in there or whether there is an alternative for the SPL to get their money.

"But it's crucial to get this money, it's vital that clubs at the highest level have this level of funding.

"We have six teams in Europe this year, so you can imagine that these teams will all be competing in Europe without any budget and a lot of them can't make any spending at the moment until they know the situation.

"So I have my fingers crossed for them and I hope it works out to the benefit of the Scottish game."