OPERATION: SURVIVAL Budge unlikely to capture hearts and minds with plans
SPFL clubs are set to discuss Scottish league reconstruction proposals next week but Hearts owner Ann Budge’s plans already look doomed to fail.
Budge has suggested changing the structure from four to three divisions, each with 14 clubs, for two seasons.
The plans were discussed at a Scottish Professional Football League meeting on Wednesday but it is the clubs who will determine their fate and there appears little prospect of success.
Budge, who is aiming to save Hearts from relegation, will need the backing of 11 of the 12 Premiership clubs and 75 per cent of the remainder. However, top-flight clubs ended earlier discussions on the same topic and the new proposals have received an underwhelming response.
Following an SPFL board meeting, a league spokesman said: “The board has now received Ann Budge’s paper to clubs on the topic of league reconstruction.
“As these matters are ultimately decided by clubs via a democratic process, we will now facilitate a series of divisional meetings, starting with the Premiership on Monday, at which all 42 clubs will have the chance to discuss the proposals in detail.”
A majority of Premiership clubs wanted a permanent solution when the issue was discussed earlier this month and the plans leave open the prospect of three top-flight teams being relegated in two years’ time, a situation unlikely to find favour with the likes of St
Mirren and St Johnstone, who helped scupper the initial idea.
Championship clubs are also reported to have baulked at the plan and there has been little encouragement in the lower leagues.
Although Budge has also stressed she is aiming to save Partick Thistle and Stranraer from an “unjust” relegation, the bottom four clubs in League One would find themselves in the bottom division, which carries with it the threat of dropping out of the league altogether.
Budge has acknowledged the uncertainty over whether clubs in the lower leagues can play at all next season and claimed her plan is flexible.