Budge vows to take legal action if Hearts are relegated early

HEARTS owner Ann Budge has vowed to take legal action should her club be relegated with eight games left.

The SPFL is discussing potential options should there be a lengthy suspension of action.

Hearts are four points adrift at the foot of the Premiership.

They missed the chance to get off the bottom in a 1-0 defeat by St Mirren less than 48 hours before a shutdown was declared on Friday.

When asked if she would take legal action if her club were relegated as it stands, Budge said: “Yes, I would have to, because I fundamentally disagree with it.

“Because there are so many options, it’s difficult for me to sit here and say we would do this and do that.

“But I am not of a view that it’s a reasonable thing to do. Nor could I see who would benefit.

“How does that help anybody i n a situation where we are all confronting i ssues that nobody ever imagined we would have to confront?

“Who benefits from it? I just can’t get my head round that. I have already made my position known shall we say, i n a nonconfrontational manner I would like to say, but I have t r i ed to put my arguments over to the SPFL board. I know they are in a difficult situation.”

Budge’s preference is that the final eight matches are played.

“I would love to be able to finish the season but if we can’t then I think we have to be pragmatic about it and take a view on a premature ending,” she added.

“If t he season were deemed to be ended then you have to go back to the rules, and the rules very, very clearly state that the competition comprises 38 games.”

Hearts owner Ann Budge.