Best M8s join up for legal scrap
FROM BACK PAGE Low confirmed her club WILL now join forces with Hearts against the SPFL.
The Thistle supremo fired a salvo at clubs who blocked a vote on reconstruction and warned: “Yesterday 26 clubs put themselves first – today we have now been given the opportunity to do the same.”
The Jags dropped out of the Championship despite having a game in hand over Queen of the South who sat just two points above them.
Hearts are facing a £5million loss from top-flight relegation while Thistle are also set for a hefty hit.
And Low said: “We said that court action was our preferred route to challenging our relegation to League One.
“It was only a lack of funding that stopped us.
“Last night, in response to our statement, we received a proposal to fully fund legal action should we wish to pursue it, at no cost to Thistle.
“After careful board consideration, we have now accepted this extremely generous offer.
“Following discussions with Hearts, we have agreed that we will launch a joint legal challenge to resolve what others have failed to do since April.”
The SPFL’s decision to scrap play-offs also denied Kelty Hearts and Brora Rangers the chance to displace Brechin in League Two.
But last night Lowland champions Kelty said in a statement: “There will be a time when clubs can move up the ladder from tier five, given the quality, ambition and drive of a host of clubs outwith the SPFL.”
MOST League One and League Two clubs want to start the season in October.
The SPFL are set to deliver a paper this week outlining their options. And the idea of a curtailed 27-game campaign – mirroring the Championship – is understood to be gathering momentum.
LESLIE DEANS has welcomed the M8 alliance trying to right the wrongs of one of Scottish football’s greatest injustices. Partick Thistle joined forces with Hearts yesterday as the north side of Glasgow tag teams with the west end of Edinburgh in legal moves against the SPFL. Anger continues to fuel the fans and administrators of both clubs after they were controversially relegated from the Premiership and Championship when the leagues were called early as a result of the Covid-19 crisis. They are now set to launch a court bid to recover compensation for being forced to take the drop, which could cost the SPFL up to
BY GARY RALSTON £8million in damages and costs.
A last-gasp attempt at reconstruction ended in failure on Monday morning when league bosses announced only 16 clubs out of 42 recommended support for a revised 14-10-10-10 set-up next season.
Former Jambos chairman Deans, still a legal confidant of the Tynecastle club, has now called on SPFL chief executive Neil Doncaster to reveal the indicative voting from each of the four leagues as a matter of transparency.
He has also expressed his delight after Thistle stepped forward to reveal they had received backing from a wealthy benefactor and were now joining Hearts in going down the legal route.
Deans said: “I’ve had a huge amount of sympathy for Partick Thistle throughout all of this.
“They have been treated worse than Hearts. I’m delighted they’re getting their chance for justice. The only reason they couldn’t do it before was because they couldn’t afford the cost of a court case.
“They were about to be denied justice and fairness because they could not afford it and that’s a terrible indictment of a modern society. They are now about to get justice and fairness and everyone should applaud that.”
As if relegation for both clubs wasn’t bad enough, Hearts must cool their heels until October 17 when the Championship resumes in a shortened 27-game season.
Their participation in the Scottish Cup is also up in the air, with the SFA previously keen to play last season’s semi-final and finals ties as a curtain-raiser to the 2020/21 campaign.
The situation is even more dire for the Jags, however, as League One and League Two clubs have still not been given a date to return to action.
Ian McCall’s side were only two points off Queen of the