Hearts should form breakaway league instead of taking legal action Scotsman.com
Budge to fight on
Hearts owner Ann Budge has vowed to challenge any attempt to ‘expel’ the Tynecastle club from the Premiership after talks over league reconstruction broke down
An alternative to legal action, is for Hearts to join the Championship and then lead a breakaway of that league and those below it.
There would no longer be promotion to the Premiership.
Hearts would then win the Championship almost every year but other clubs would have much more chance of winning that contest than any team has of toppling Celtic in the Premiership.
Meantime, the Premiership, with no hope for 11 clubs of winning and no risk of relegation, would stagnate.
Hearts would attract average gates close to 20,000 in the Championship – winning encourages supporters, at any level – and be, as they are now, the third best supported team in Scotland.
The Scottish Cup could continue to be open to all.
After a while, some of the struggling clubs in the Premiership would probably apply to join the Championship.
Eventually, the Premiership could be just Celtic and Rangers, playing each other 36 times in a season. Sky’s the limit as to how much TV would pay for that every season.
Hearts can lead a band of 30-plus clubs away from the boring Premiership. There wouldn’t be any European football, of course, but who cares? No team in Scotland has any hope of winning a European competition. What the changes would do is to give the grassroots supporters their football back.
Ron Delnevo
If pushed I would have to admit that Hearts’ new main stand is going to prove to be a millstone around the neck of the club. Far too much money has been spent on accommodating the wants of the privileged – fancy suites, restaurants, contemporary interiors and what not – while the squad is not even good enough to be called “ordinary”.
Budge should be careful what she asks for. While most football fans (bar a number of clearly tormented Hibbies) would submit that relegation, in an unfinished season, is a bitter pill, someone has to go down to accommodate Dundee United. That cannot be grudged.
I suggest that any further donations, to whatever initiative Mrs Budge wishes to indulge in next, would be a scandalous waste – the entirety of the last 24 months can only be described as scandalous, and too many Hearts fans refuse to acknowledge these facts.
vaquerito escoces
Happy to help pay for the legal action when they try and expel us.
Andrew Not Prince
Utter garbage from the woman who has been responsible for the waste of fans’ and donors’ money in the inept team and management staff. Also the £22m unfinished stand which is likely to cost more than the ground is worth and, or any other Scottish ground for matter.
John Burns
The problem would not have come about if Ann had got her act together long ago and got rid of Craig Levein and his coaching hierarchy.
Get on with starting again, change the performances to finally rid the club of the Levein legacy once and for all. Hearts need to take their medicine and stop any more waste of time or money trying to stop the probable outcome. As far as the others in the SPFL… a long memory is required and a minimum of co-operation with the other clubs should be the norm in the future.
Bobby B
In complete agreement with you Mrs Budge. The situation stinks.
Bil Irving
Hearts management and football has stunk all season, that’s the real problem here, and the blame lays squarely with Budge.
Just Sayin Like
“Expel”? I think the word Budge was looking for was relegate. As the team with the worst record in the SPFL as it stands, this is the consequence of being c**p on the pitch.
Noggin the Nog
It does seem unjust that several clubs will be relegated, when they could have played their way out of their perilous situation. There again, justice and the people who run football here are not natural bedfellows. Only in Scotland! WILLIAM BALLANTINE
Bo’ness, West Lothian