JAM TARTS TO ESCAPE THE DROP?

HEARTS and Partick Thistle were thrown a potential legal lifeline last night after judges in France scrapped relegation from Ligue 1.

The National Court blocked the demotion of Amiens and Toulouse following the coronavirus curtailed campaign with top flight clubs still having 10 matches left to play.

And it’s a development which has alerted chiefs at Tynecastle, Firhill and Stranraer where club bosses have been monitoring the French and Belgian cases in case they can be used as a precedent.

One huge point of difference between the cases is that in France, the league executive made the decision on relegation but every SPFL club voted to end the season and relegate the teams involved.

Heart chief Ann Budge (above) is preparing a potential costly legal case against the SPFL should Ann Budge’s latest push for league reconstruction fail.

Their last chance of avoiding the drop will be debated by the SPFL board with hopes of an 11th hour reconstruction still not dead.

Hearts have a proposal which would allow both Rangers and Celtic to launch B teams into a beefed up bottom tier next season, along with Highland League champions Brorra Rangers and Lowland League title winners Kelty Hearts.

Celtic are also prepared to throw their weight behind the plan. But it’s far from certain that the required number of lower league clubs will be prepared to vote it through despite various financial insentives from welcoming the Old Firm’s clots into the fold.

But one club source said last night: “There was a feeling the entire reconstruction debate would be declared a dead duck today. That’s not the case.

“There does seem to be a willingness among many clubs to right the most obvious wrongs of Covid-19 but there’s a lot of talking to be done in order to make that happen.”

There was a feeling league reconstruction was a dead duck but that does not appear to be the case