By Amanda Little

Last updated 13:34, Wednesday, 04 June 2008

SCOTTISH football chief Gordon Smith believes lessons must be learned over the role of rich benefactors like Brooks Mileson following Gretna’s demise.

Smith will seek urgent talks with league officials in an attempt to prevent another club suffering the same fate as the Borderers, who are on the brink of going into liquidation.

The Scottish FA chief executive believes other clubs can learn from Gretna’ plight after Mileson effectively pulled the plug on the club after spending a fortune to take them to the top flight.

Smith’s call comes as fans demanded answers about why the Carlisle-based businessman ended his financial support following an illness.

Mileson has not been seen in public since February and his son Craig, the club’s former operations director, yesterday refused to comment on behalf of the family when contacted by the News & Star.

Smith said: “It's very sad. Unfortunately the problem with Gretna was their success was down to the money of one person and there was no stability behind it because of that.

“That's something that maybe lessons have to be learned about, the stability in the game.”

Gretna resigned from the Scottish Football League yesterday – 24 hours after the administrator controlling the stricken club’s affairs put their Raydale Park ground up for sale.

Their financial collapse was triggered in February when Mileson withdrew his funding after spending time in hospital with a brain infection.

The Sunderland-born businessman, who tried and failed to buy Carlisle United, spent about £8million taking the village club from the Third Division to the SPL, but ultimately left them with debts approaching £4million.

Smith added: “If someone is putting a lot of money into a team and it's getting a bit of success for a while, is there any future for that team if that one person pulls out?

“I think all of us in Scottish football need to look at that, all the bodies, everybody involved in the game.

“The SFA, the SFL, the SPL will need to look very closely at these aspects of how the game is structured and financed.”

Gretna Supporters Society secretary Anton Hodge said: “We respect that Mr Mileson is ill and we respect his families wishes but there are a lot of questions to be answered.

“We have said all along that we are not into the blame game, but there are too many unanswered questions and we need to understand what went wrong.

“We’re very saddened by the way it has ended as he brought great times to Gretna, not just with the football but with the community programme, which did so much good work.”

Annan Athletic are facing a race against time to get their floodlights up so they can replace Gretna in the SFL.

Applications have to be in by June 12 and a decision will be made on July 3.

Annan chairman Henry McClelland said: “Our sponsors are right behind us and we’re pulling out all the stops to ensure any problems are eradicated. It’s all systems go.”

ALittle@cngroup.co.uk