Treatment of Hearts has ‘been a disgrace’

CRAIG LEVEIN has branded the treatment of Hearts by fellow clubs and Scottish football’s authorities as ‘a disgrace from the start’ of the Covid-19 crisis.

Levein’s former club, along with Partick Thistle, are battling their respective league demotions, the arbitration hearing against which will commence tomorrow.

Since the matter was handed back from the Court of Session by Lord Clark to an SFA-organised independent legal panel, both clubs were hit with a notice of complaint from Hampden.

That’s just the latest example of what Levein cites as the multiple self-inflicted wounds from which he believes the Scottish game will struggle to recover. And he is convinced the entire fallout could and should have been avoided had there been a genuine will to adopt a sensible approach to reconstruction.

Levein said: ‘I find it really quite disturbing what’s gone on in Scottish football.

‘And the latest thing with the

SFA charging Hearts and Partick Thistle for going to court, for a members organisation to be torn apart like this, wasn’t necessary.

‘And I do think that the people at the centre of it, their leadership has been a joke.

‘There will be some long-lasting effects of this, for sure. In boardrooms, there are going to be weird situations when teams come up against each other.

‘I can see some directors not even going into the opposing teams’ boardrooms because people feel hugely let down by their fellow members.’

Levein was dismissed from the manager’s role at Tynecastle in October, although he continued to work as director of football until being furloughed in early April.

With Hearts bottom of the table when coronavirus stopped the game, the ballot not to finish the season but to call the leagues as they stood sentenced them to the Championship.

A further vote by clubs to reject the chance of an independent review into the SPFL’s handling of the crisis, including the now infamous ‘Dundee email’ fiasco, baffled Levein.

‘What’s happened has been a disgrace right from the start,’ he continued. ‘There haven’t been enough questions asked. Why would anyone vote against an independent inquiry? That’s what I cannot fathom.’

Levein added: ‘There will be redundancies at Hearts. Compensation is the least they should get. Because they weren’t relegated.

‘It should have been that no one lost out because of what happened. But Hearts and Partick Thistle have been placed in lower leagues because of the coronavirus. Surely at a time like this, there should have been some pulling together.’

GARY KEOWN IS AWAY