Doncaster dismisses Hearts’ relegation rage
Chief executive dismisses Hearts’ anger at relegation
NEIL DONCASTER insists the SPFL’s decision to call the season based on final standings was the ‘best and fairest’ outcome. The league body has come in for criticism from Hearts chairman Ann Budge, who claims her club along with fellow relegated sides Partick Thistle and Stranraer suffered ‘totally disproportionate financial damage’ when a decision was made to cut the last campaign short as a consequence of coronavirus.
The Tynecastle club launched a joint legal fight with Thistle to try to overturn their demotions. On Monday, however, a threeperson independent arbitration panel found that the SPFL’s actions were justified.
Doncaster further enraged Hearts by saying he was ‘delighted’ by the verdict. Insisting he took no pleasure from seeing teams go down and jobs placed at risk, however, he told Sky Sports News: ‘We’re pleased the arbitration decision gives us clarity and certainty and allows us to look forward.
‘The process has been largely misunderstood by a number of people. There was never any realistic possibility of the season being completed and that was accepted by all 12 Premiership clubs. There were two divisional meetings and Hearts themselves accepted that the season needed to be brought to an end.
‘There was a lot of conflict between clubs in the SPFL. The stakes were very high, there are peoples’ livelihoods, it’s a business and a lot of money is at stake.
‘People are looking after their own interests and our role at the centre is to apply the rules as fairly as we can, and to come up with the best and fairest outcome.
‘I’m very happy that we did that but I’m not happy that unfortunately clubs had to be relegated with part of the season remaining.
‘But it is a sporting competition, those clubs were in bottom position at the point where the season was brought to an end. The season couldn’t be completed and everyone accepts that.
‘It was then a question of coming up with the fairest possible outcome.’
While England, Germany, Spain and other nations concluded their leagues, Scottish government lockdown restrictions meant teams here were prevented from playing games until July 10.
With a UEFA deadline of August 3 to conclude the season, Doncaster says it was unrealistic to play pre-season games and fit in eight rounds of outstanding fixtures.
‘There was never an option to complete the season in Scotland,’ he continued. ‘The question was how you dealt with that situation and how you come up with the fairest possible outcome.
‘That was put forward by the board of the SPFL and over 80 per cent of the clubs agreed that the fairest way was to determine the divisions on a points-per-game basis and that’s what happened.
‘We would have liked the flexibility the English clubs had to complete our season but we just didn’t have it.
‘In England, players were allowed to continue to train and that allowed the Premier League to finish their season off. That option wasn’t open to us.
‘Scottish government regulations which were in place meant that our players simply couldn’t train. They only came back to full contact training at the end of June.’
Hearts and Partick Thistle ended the arbitration process empty handed — and may yet be forced to foot the bill for costs for all sides.
Quizzed on whether clubs should agree to pay compensation to relegated teams unable to fight their way out of trouble, Doncaster added: ‘We’re a members organisation and we’re at the whim of our members.
‘What the members decide, that’s what we implement.
‘To underline that, we put forward a recent resolution to the members designed to give the board the express power to deal with any Covid-19 related disruption and the members declined to vote for that.’