Scrutiny by Premiership first barrier to Budge plan
● SPFL to call meetings for each division ● Top flight clubs would need to vote 11-1
Hearts owner Ann Budge’s league reconstruction plan will face its first test next Monday when it is discussed at a meeting of all Premiership clubs.
Budge’s 14-14-14 set-up, which she proposes would stay in place for the next two seasons, was considered at an SPFL board meeting yesterday.
The board agreed to put it forward to divisional meetings of all 42 member clubs, starting with the current 12-team top flight.
Budge’s proposal would entail a change in the financial distribution model for an enlarged Premiership which would include the Tynecastle club and Inverness Caledonian Thistle. That requires an 11-1 vote in favour from those clubs before it could even go before those in the Championship, League 1 and 2.
An initial move for reconstruction earlier this month, led by Budge and Hamilton Accies’ vice-chairman Les Gray, was sunk when several Premiership clubs – including Hibs, St Mirren and St Johnstone – indicated they would not consider backing it.
But after the SPFL board decided to curtail the 2019-20 season because of the coronavirus pandemic, relegating Hearts who were four points adrift at the bottom of the
Premiership table with eight games left to play, Budge was given the go-ahead to come up with an alternative reconstruction model.
“The board has now received Ann Budge’s paper to clubs on the topic of league reconstruction,” said an SPFL spokesman.
“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
“We will now facilitate a series of divisional meetings at which all 42 clubs will have the chance to discuss the proposals in detail” SPFL SPOKESMAN
the chance to discuss the proposals in detail.”
Even if Premiership clubs change their stance in sufficient numbers to indicate they would give Budge’s plan the necessary 11-1 support, it would still face significant obstacles among clubs in the other three divisions.
Championship clubs are especially sceptical of the proposal which could effectively mean six clubs are relegated from the second tier when the leagues are reconfigured again in two years’ time.
Aidan Smith’s column in Scotland on Sunday last weekend, in which he reflected on a spell watching Hibs and Hearts on alternate weekends, triggered some memories.
Like Aidan, my experiences of Edinburgh football date back to when my father first took me, just as his father took him. Aidan went, he says, in the 1960s. I can date it back to the late 1950s when I went with my father, who was most annoyed that Hearts had sold Dave Mackay and Alex Young south of the border. I never had the pleasure of watching the Terrible Trio and these terrific two footballers.
Nonetheless I, like many others, loved my football. And in early life I lived in Iona street, which was a stone’s throw from Easter Road. In fact, my mother’s uncles were, to a man, Hibs supporters. But my dad was always pulling me in one direction and one direction only and there was never any doubt which was going to be successful.
Aidan goes on to say that he sees Hearts as his second team. Whilst I would never claim the other Edinburgh club are my second team – after all I could not have my father turning in his grave – what I would say is mydistastewasneverreserved for our Edinburgh neighbours but instead for the two clubs at the other end of the M8.
Aidan expressed sympathy for a club expelled from an unfinished league and who now face next season in a division that conceivably may never get off the ground, potentially losing millions of pounds as a result.
If he looks back to a friendlier era and asks why it is different now, then he might care to reflect on things that have happened in the past. In the early 1960s there was a derby where the score was 3-3. I was just a lad at the time but I vividly remember being at that game. Afterwards, my dad and my mother’s Hibssupporting uncles all agreed that Hearts hadn’t exactly over exerted themselves that day because Hibs were desperate to avoid relegation and there was a suggestion – I put it no higher than that – that Hearts had not bust a gut to win.
If you move forward you might also reflect on another example. In 1990, when the late Wallace Mercer attempted to take over and close down their rivals, a lot of Hearts people were very unhappy. We felt that despite being our rivals they had a right to live and it did not sit well with us to see them closed down. I told Wallace
face to face that I did not think it was a good idea. Other people told him the same. The rest is history. These are examples where off the field cooperation was greater. You then move forward to 2013.
By that stage the climate seems to be radically different. Hearts were in trouble and the administrator Bryan Jackson was desperately trying to put a deal together with Lithuanian creditors to sell the club to Ann Budge’s consortium and there was clear evidence, as confirmed by Mr Jackson, that some Hibs fans tried to derail the whole process. Thankfully that never came to anything.
It is perhaps indicative of a change in climate but if there is any semblance of consideration left for each other we could have perhaps expected a clear statement recently from Hibs in favour of reconstruction. Nothing has been forthcoming, and nor do I expect it, despite the fact Scottish football risks alienating its third largest support at a time when the game needs every single penny it can get.
Despite that, Hearts will survive, be it in the Premiership, Championship or even in the English league – and they will prosper.
A number of things will contribute to that including the money that is pumped in every month by the magnificent efforts of the Foundation of Hearts, which was swollen by over 1000 new pledges this last week.
And on the question of finances I have gone on record recently to say that I am confident of success if Hearts are left with no alternative but to start civil court proceedings to remedy this scandalous decision that has been perpetrated against them. Indeed, the latest revelation that there might not even be a Championship next season, or if there is one it could be a truncated campaign, in my opinion only adds to the chances of success as it is a further demonstration that the SPFL failed in their duty of care to member clubs.
It might also mean that Hearts’ loss is considerably greater than the £3 million originally estimated by Ann Budge. I am sure if this were the case that would mean the claim in the Court of Session would be for a higher amount.
So where are we? By adopting the well-constructed plan given to all clubs by Ann Budge this week, there is an opportunity for Hibs and other leading clubs to take Scottish football out of the coronavirus darkness and into a new era, specifically with 14 top-flight clubs, with the financial underpinning that is given by the broadcast partners who will be delighted to see that such a league would give five derbies – Old Firm, New Firm, Edinburgh, Highlands and Lanarkshire –throughout the season.
Fans thrive on derbies the world over. It is giving people what they want. It is giving Sky, assuming a split of seven-seven, or six-eight, after 26 games, four Old Firm games a season, which is what they want.
It is also giving the players of the SPFL, who voted by more than 80 per cent for reconstruction according to their union chief executive Fraser Wishart, what they want. It is a way to pull the game together that is to the benefit of everybody.
Whilst I will not hold my breath, I will be the first to publicly applaud Hibernian if they show the foresight and leadership to help make this happen. ● Leslie Deans is a former Hearts chairman and was a director of the club between 1994 and 1999.
‘The broadcast partners will be delighted to see that a 14-team league would give five derbies – Old Firm, New Firm, Edinburgh, Highlands and Lanarkshire’