Don’t rejig the league just to save Hearts, says Goodwin
JIM GOODWIN believes it would be fundamentally wrong for league reconstruction to be belatedly waved through for the sole purpose of saving Hearts from the drop. Tynecastle owner Ann Budge will today make a last-ditch appeal to clubs to consider expanding the top-flight via a fresh resolution — 10 days after the clubs stated there was no appetite for such a discussion in the current climate. Her appeal comes on the day the SPFL board are poised to confirm the decision to call the Premiership season — simultaneously crowning Celtic champions and relegating Hearts. Co-chair of the SPFL Reconstruction Task Force, Budge’s pitch — which will suggest a semi-permanent rather than temporary solution — represents a last throw of the dice before legal options are considered. But while St Mirren boss Goodwin has sympathy for Hearts’ predicament, he
believes sacrificing a functioning 12-team league purely to solve one problem makes little sense.
‘I don’t think there’s a great deal wrong with any of the leagues at the moment,’ said the Irishman.
‘The problem we’ve got is that there are teams who are going to find themselves relegated when there are games left.
‘Hearts have a legitimate chance of getting themselves out of that position, but I don’t agree with reconstructing the league purely on that matter because they are as competitive as they’ve ever been.
‘Every week the games are competitive — not meaningless. The introduction of the play-offs was fantastic.
‘You have the middle teams fighting to get into that top half and that adds to the excitement.
‘Then you have those teams in the top half trying to get European places. I think the leagues are working perfectly well.’
Goodwin, whose side were six-points ahead of Hearts when the curtain came down with eight games to go, believes a temporary adjustment to some variation of 14-14-14 simply creates more problems further down the line.
‘Hearts are unfairly going to be relegated. If we can come up with a situation to stop that, then great,’ he added.
‘But how to do you do that without preventing Dundee United from being promoted?
‘I’m not in favour of temporary reconstruction. It means that in a couple of years’ time, how do you sort it all out again?
‘I think you’ll open up an even bigger can of worms down the line.
‘If this hadn’t have happened, if we hadn’t had the virus come along the way it did, then we wouldn’t be talking about reconstruction at all.’
Goodwin believes Scottish football cannot afford to meddle with the one certainty it has right now — the £160million five-year deal with Sky that kicks in on August 1.
There is also the suggestion Sky could take over sponsorship of the league as part of a deal to offset the £10m liability over the early finish to the season.
‘It’s all very well talking to each other and trying to come up with solutions, but we’ve just signed a really good deal with Sky Sports,’ said Goodwin.
‘The deal signed by them is for a 12-team league. The pot of money that’s there now would need to be divided among two other teams which would mean teams getting less.
‘These are all things that need to be discussed but the big player in all of this, when we talk about reconstruction, will be the main investor which is Sky.’
Last week, SPFL chairman Murdoch MacLennan said Scottish football ‘must do everything humanly possible’ to resume ‘by the end of July’ — giving rise to hope that the game may flicker back into life sooner rather than later.
But Goodwin countered: ‘I don’t want to be contradicting guys in that position, but I have to try and take a commonsense approach to it.
‘I find that very hopeful that we’ll be playing competitive football by the end of July.
‘I’m sure there will be some commercial issues when it comes to the Betfred Cup. That competition obviously starts in the middle of July.
‘I don’t know what the ramifications will be for that but there’s no way in the world that the players will be back fit and raring to go in the middle of July to play in those games.
‘We’ll be looking towards the end of August, probably September. That’s my opinion — not what I’ve been told by the chairman or anyone. If we are back playing in the middle to the end of August, I’d take that.’