FIGHT CLUB
Budge’s veiled threat to sue over Hearts’ ‘expulsion’ unless reconstruction is on table shows this won’t end civil war
TRUE to form, Ann Budge has again approached the reconstruction debate with all the subtlety of Uche Ikpeazu roaring into the penalty box in pursuit of a hopeful punt.
Sadly for Hearts fans, the similarities do not end there. Because the chairman’s strike rate of late arguably ranks alongside the big forward’s ability to convert chances into goals.
Budge’s immediate response to yesterday’s ‘unanimous’ decision on season 2019-20 could be boiled down to two rather contrasting messages.
First, please vote for this resolution. For the good of the game. For the sake of sporting integrity. For the little children who want to believe that there is still good in this bad and dangerous world.
Secondly, be warned that opposing the right kind of reconstruction — the sort that keeps Hearts in the Scottish Premiership — will end up in a lengthy and protracted law suit.
Budge doesn’t like the word ‘warning’. But nobody can interpret yesterday’s statement as anything but a shot across the bows of SPFL clubs.
Referring to the decision to ‘expel Heart of Midlothian from the top flight’, pointedly avoiding calling it relegation, the Hearts owner is clearly spoiling for a fight.
And she’s already lawyered up, having consulted with former Hearts chairman Les Deans — a solicitor by trade — on the next step.
Deans told talkSPORT yesterday that he felt opposition to a 14-team top flight was softening.
Asked why anyone would move on the subject, the former director bluntly declared: ‘The threat of litigation might change that.
‘If reconstruction is completely taken off the table, Hearts have no alternative but to proceed with legal action.
‘I’ve given Ann Budge my opinion. I believe Hearts, if they were expelled from the Premiership, would have a good legal case against the SPFL and the member clubs who voted to expel them.
‘They’ve decided to expel Hearts. That is a breach of duty that each club has to the other — and would entitle Hearts to litigate.
‘There are three grounds on which there have been breaches by the SPFL and those who voted to expel Hearts, Partick Thistle and Stranraer.
‘If the expulsion takes place then, having these breaches in mind, the remedies that could be open to Hearts would be first of all to seek an interdict.
‘Scottish equivalent of what, in English law, they call an injunction. That is a discretionary measure — and one cannot say for certain whether it would or would not be granted. The decision would be down to the court.
‘On top of that, it would be open for Hearts to ask for financial damages. Ann Budge estimates losses at £3million next season.
‘And it could be considerably more than that. Who can guarantee they will be promoted next season?
‘There is even the risk that lower-level football will not take place at all next season. So these are the remedies that are open to Hearts.
‘I believe Ann would like to find a resolution — and I wholeheartedly endorse that. Nobody wants to see football caught up in courts of law. But the fact remains Hearts have been treated outrageously. It’s quite disgraceful, what has happened.’
While Budge remains tetchy about even the merest hint that she’s throwing her weight around, Deans clearly isn’t so concerned about playing the bad guy.
Referencing the Rangers dossier, he said there were questions about ‘the practices and governance of the SPFL’ all of which could be raised in court.
‘Perhaps that is not where Scottish football wants to be going forward,’ he added.
To recap, then, Budge is threatening legal action. And one of the key figures whispering in her ear is openly using the prospect of embarrassing revelations in open court — the public spectacle of our game’s inner workings being laid bare — as a friendly reminder of what might happen if anyone dares cross Hearts.
Whatever Budge may say about ‘positive discussions’ with other clubs about the prospects of reconstruction, it hardly feels like a charm offensive.
Yes, Aberdeen chairman Dave Cormack changed tack. With Celtic, Rangers and — obviously
— Hearts on board, they carry a bit of sway.
But Budge has wandered well off reservation in seeking this new resolution, leaving behind the reconstruction task force — who had favoured a permanent solution — by putting forward a two-year stop-gap.
Among lower-league clubs, there is annoyance that her only intent seems to be immediately preventing Hearts, with four league wins all season, from slipping into the Championship.
Very little thought has been spared, they feel, on what happens to the bottom three tiers. Opposition in the ranks, then, remains sufficiently strong to make success seem a remote prospect.
Deans feels otherwise, arguing: ‘There has perhaps been a recognition that the punishment of expulsion of Hearts is incredibly severe. That has perhaps taken longer to filter in than it should have. But I credit clubs coming round to that view.
‘It’s clear to me, from a distance, that the four biggest clubs in the country — Hearts, Aberdeen, Celtic and Rangers — have indicated that they can all go with reconstruction.
‘That’s perhaps a powerful tool to have going forward.’
What happens next will, ultimately, define Budge’s place in Hearts history. Still due to hand over ownership to the fans this year, the woman who saved the club from administration has seen her credibility undermined by a series of high-profile errors in judgment.
Having gambled on Ian Cathro, stood steadfastly behind Craig Levein and then spent far too long in pursuit of Daniel Stendel, Budge clearly doesn’t change course on a sixpence.
And, when it comes to preventing expulsion, relegation, demotion or whatever you want to call it, the lady is obviously not for turning. No longer Queen of Hearts in the eyes of many fans, she’s certainly beginning to look like Scottish football’s patron saint of lost causes.