KEVIN BACKING SPFL PROPOSAL
Binos boss Rutkiewicz: ‘I feel this is the best decision‘
Stirling Albion manager Kevin Rutkiewicz has backed SPFL proposals to end the current season.
Clubs are being asked to vote on a resolution recommending the termination of the Ladbrokes Championship, League One and League Two campaigns, with final placings determined on a pointsper-game basis.
That would see Dundee United, Raith Rovers and Cove Rangers crowned champions and promoted, with Stranraer dropping into League Two and Partick Thistle demoted to League One.
The play-offs would be scrapped but the situation regarding the Premiership is more complicated as UEFA are keen that top-flight football for 2019/20 is completed if at all possible.
The SPFL regulations require that 75 per cent of clubs in the Premiership, 75 per cent in the
Championship and a combined 75 per cent of League One and Two clubs are needed to ratify the proposals.
Stirling Albion are sixth in League Two, five points outside the play-offs with eight matches remaining, and their top-four ambitions were badly hit by defeats to Elgin and Cove before the lockdown.
Rutkiewicz said: “We have to look beyond our immediate targets and, for me, the current positions should stand given the situation the country is in.
“We were in the hunt for a play-off at best but Cove Rangers were the best team in the league and should be rewarded with promotion.
“I think the proposal is as close to making sense as we are going to get. There’s no perfect solution to this — whether it was this season ran longer or next season was shorter. There were lots of permutations and there were always some teams going to be hurt but, in my opinion, this proposal is the least controversial.
“To be fair, it wouldn’t sit well with me if I had been told my promotion hopes had gone overnight or I had been relegated. “We could still have got into the play-offs and a lot of hard work has gone into this season but our position in the table probably makes the decision a bit easier to accept.
“I have great sympathy with every club who might miss out on something but I feel this is the best decision and it would let everyone prepare for the new season. Making an earlier decision is going to allow clubs to plan for 2020/21, whether that starts in July, August, September or whenever.”
In a statement issued on Wednesday afternoon, SPFL chief executive Neil Doncaster (below left) said: “As a board, we have consulted extensively with clubs in all four divisions since football was suspended on March 13 and have taken expert legal and commercial advice.
“Now is the right time to act. Very regrettably, we must face the reality that it’s simply not possible for the remaining Ladbrokes Championship, League One and League Two fixtures to remain postponed without causing significant further financial harm to clubs in those divisions. Further, many of our clubs are experiencing very challenging organisational and financial circumstances.
“Everyone in our game and in the country generally, is wrestling with the devastating impact of COVID-19.
“They all know there are no easy answers or simple solutions, but the board’s recommended proposal will give us a far greater degree of certainty, minimise the harm to the game overall, and enable us make end-of-season fee payments now to Ladbrokes Championship, League One and League Two clubs.
“The position for the Ladbrokes Premiership remains particularly complicated. Everyone is aware of UEFA’s desire for the family of European football to work together to resolve the issues that confront us all. We are keen to work with UEFA and remain in discussion with them over the situation in Scotland.
“The quicker we reach a final position the better, but there is no doubt this is the most complicated and challenging situation our game has faced in living memory.”