Scottish Professional Football League
Introduction
The Scottish Professional Football League Limited (the “Company”, “we”, “our”) is committed to conducting its business in a morally principled manner. The Company is aware, however, that modern slavery can be found in all sectors and therefore the Company needs to be cognisant of this.
Section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 requires companies with a turnover over £36m to publish an annual slavery and human trafficking statement.
The Company takes a zero-tolerance approach to modern slavery, both across the Company’s group of companies and within our supply chains. This statement sets out the steps that we have taken to minimise, as far as possible, the risk of modern slavery taking place, as well as the steps which we propose to take to further mitigate against such risks.
What is Modern Slavery?
In this statement, where we say “modern slavery” we are referring to the illegal exploitation of people for personal or commercial gain, and it can include sexual exploitation, domestic servitude, forced labour, criminal exploitation, human trafficking and organ harvesting.
Organisational Structure
The principal activity of the Company is to organise, manage and commercially exploit the premier men’s football league competition in Scotland (the cinch Scottish Professional Football League) (“the League”) together with the Scottish League Cup (the SPFL Viaplay Cup) and the Scottish Challenge Cup (the SPFL Trust Trophy).
The Company is structured as a private limited company and is wholly owned by the owners of the 42 member clubs which comprise the League at any one time (“Clubs”). The owner and operator of each Club holds one share in the Company. Each Club is independent, working within the articles of association of the Company and the Rules and Regulations of the League, as well as the rules of The Scottish Football Association, UEFA and FIFA, and being subject to Scottish law. The Company’s only offices, from which it’s various competitions are operated and all of its employees are usually based, are in Glasgow.
The Company derives its revenues predominantly from its broadcasting and sponsorship agreements with various commercial partners.
The Company is also the parent company of the wholly owned subsidiary, The Scottish Women’s Premier League Limited (the “SWPL”) whose principal activity is to organise, manage and commercially exploit the premier women’s football league competitions in Scotland (the SWPL1 and SWPL2), together with the Scottish Women’s Premier League Cup (the Sky Sports Cup).
The Company is also the parent company to a number of non-trading subsidiaries.
Together the Company, the SWPL and the non-trading subsidiaries shall be referred to as the “Group”.
For the year ended 31 May 2023, the Group had an average of 19 employees and a turnover of £42.6 million.
Our Supply Chains
The majority of the Group’s supply chains are service based with the point of delivery of service in Scotland. The Company does not directly manufacture or sell goods.
In addition to our supply chain, we also have a number of commercial partnerships with a range of organisations, predominantly based in the UK.
We are committed to taking steps to ensure that modern slavery does not exist across the Company’s operations or supply chains. This statement sets out the Company’s commitment to addressing the risk of modern slavery.
Our Processes on Modern Slavery
We are committed to ensuring, as far as possible, that there is no modern slavery in our supply chains or in any part of our business. We are committed to acting ethically and with integrity in all our business relationships and to implementing and enforcing effective systems and controls to reduce the risk of modern slavery taking place in our supply chains.
We seek to partner with suppliers that share our values. We expect our supply chain to operate fair and equitable practices, where modern slavery is not tolerated.
There are no current issues of non-compliance with modern slavery laws from ourselves or our supply chain that we have been made aware of.
Should any potential non-compliance be reported to us, we will work to remedy any areas in which we or our suppliers do not meet the appropriate standards that we expect to work to. In the event of any external party not meeting those standards, this may include ultimately ceasing to trade with partners who do not continue to meet our requirements or who breach relevant legislation.
The Company also has a whistleblowing policy, which details the procedures for how to report a matter to the Company. This is promoted internally as a key part of the Staff Handbook.
Due Diligence Processes and Risk Assessment for Modern Slavery
As part of our initiative to identify and mitigate this risk we include provisions within our commercial contracts to ensure the parties we work with understand our commitment to, and comply with the terms of, the modern slavery legislation.
We also speak to companies in our supply chains regularly about their processes and how they source labour and materials as well as asking them to see their anti-modern slavery commitments.
Future Actions
We continue to review our suppliers and their practices to mitigate the risk of modern slavery within our business and supply chains.
This statement is made pursuant to section 54(1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and constitutes the Scottish Professional Football League Limited Group’s slavery and human trafficking statement for the financial reporting period ending 31st May 2023. This statement received Board approval on 4th October 2023.