UNDER RECONSTRUCTION

STRATEGY: Hearts owner Ann Budge has proposed that Scotland’s four divisions switch to three groups of 14 for two seasons at least, a proposal that hinges on the support of Premiership clubs

Pick a date. Any date. The working world seems to be planning how it is going to resume its activity of choice in as safe a manner as possible. But Scottish football is still left waiting.

The announcement from England on Thursday that the Premier League is due to resume on June 17, following on from the Bundesliga getting back under way, will satiate the appetite of many to get competitive football back going again.

Whether it is safe to do so and whether the measures put in place are adequate enough, that is for the experts to decide.

But, ahead of the meeting of Scottish Premiership clubs today, the game in this country is mired in continual debate about reconstruction. With the season stopped in March and ended in April, we are now into June and still have no real clue what next season will look like or when it could start.

We had a group set up by the SPFL to discuss reconstruction, which met three times before being disbanded on the back of Dave Cormack’s announcement that Premiership clubs would not vote for it.

However, it then emerged that reconstruction was not indeed dead, as had been previously thought.

Ann Budge appears to have put this three leagues of 14 proposal together by herself and sent it out to clubs and rightly or wrongly, the proposal hinges on the support of Premiership clubs.

In my view it is a matter that could have been resolved by a top flight of 14 and three leagues of 10, proposed by the league and put to member clubs from the start.

It would disadvantage the least amount of people, spare clubs at the bottom of the league who still had chance of escaping the drop and allow those who had won their respective leagues the chance to progress.

Instead, we are left with talk of legal challenges if clubs are relegated, while various figures put forward apocalyptic scenarios of clubs having to mothball or being without fans for a sustained period of time.

Giving clubs a start date, which can be adjusted if health matters indicate it is required, would allow measures to be put in place so players can play and spectators be allowed safely into grounds.

Social distancing is going to be required until a vaccine is found and this can be done inside a football ground.

Fans are going to be vital, even more so to lower league and part-time clubs who are not recipients of TV money.

Behind-closed-doors does not work for them and it is easy to understand why.

Being a supposed members’ organisation means everyone needs to have their say and getting 42 clubs to agree on the same thing is an unenviable task.

But working towards getting football back should be a common enough goal to unite everyone involved.

“We are left with talk of legal challenges if clubs are relegated”