SPFL PARK THEIR PLANS FOR RECONSTRUCTION Championship and League One sides relegated as Tynecastle await fate

CHIEF FOOTBALL WRITER

ABERDEEN chairman Dave Cormack last night revealed that plans for SPFL league reconstruction have been parked for now so that Scotland’s clubs can fully address the coronavirus crisis.

The 15-strong reconstruction working group was informed by email yesterday that not enough Ladbrokes Premiership clubs supported changing the current 12-10-10-10 set-up to get it passed.

The development, which came after a meeting of Premiership clubs, means that Hearts, who were four points adrift at the bottom of the top flight with eight games remaining when football was suspended in March, are set to be relegated.

Elsewhere, Partick Thistle and Stranraer are poised to drop down to League One and League Two respectively.

Cormack expressed sympathy with the clubs who will suffer as a result and insisted that reconstruction will be considered when football has started up again.

He said: “The strong feeling of the group was that we must focus all of our energies on emerging from the crisis we face, due to the pandemic, on getting back to playing football safely and getting fans back into grounds as soon as practicably possible. Whilst the group sympathises with the plight of the situation the relegated teams are faced with, it concluded that this is not the right time to consider immediate reconstruction in the midst of a crisis. But the group is willing to engage in and pick up on these discussions once we are through Covid-19.”