Clubs have a strong argument, according to top London lawyer

Hearts and Partick have a “powerful” case in their civil action against the SPFL and the clubs’ expulsions from the Premiership and Championship respectively, according to a top London lawyer.

With the clubs’ court case starting this morning, Safwan Afridi, who specialises in employment and sport at practice Radcliffeslebrasseur, believes the delayed start to the Scottish Championship and League 1 seasons could be key to the prospect of success for Hearts and Partick.

Afridi says the delay – the Championship is not due to start until mid-october and a start date for League 1 has still to be set – represents a restriction of trade in that it deprives theclubs“ofcompetition and the means to operate.” He says this is likely to make any judge sympathetic to the two clubs’ cases.

The Court of Session will this morning sit for a preliminary hearing on the petition from Hearts and Partick Thistle that argues against the legitimacy of their demotions from the Premiership and Champions respectively.

Essentially a procedural sitting, the purpose will be to decide the best way of moving forward in the dispute. The only decision expected to be made will be whether it moves to a full hearing, or is suspended for the issues to be determined by the SFA arbitration process.

In their submissions that will be countered by the SPFL, Hearts and Thistle demand that promotion and relegation be suspended or £10 million in compensation be awarded, £8m for Hearts, over the April vote to curtail the season following the Covid-19 pandemic shutdown the previous month.

Afridi believes the SPFL will live to rue the curtailment to the season vote, which has precipitated rancour and bitterness across the game for the past three months.

He points to the litigation that has followed in Belgium, Netherlands and France – all leagues who ended their campaigns within a month of the Covid-19 pandemic shutdown in March – as evidence of governance failure in those set-ups.

That is the case, Afridi believes, even allowing for the fact that the French football league (LFP) last week relegated Amiens and Toulouse – despite the country’s civil court having earlier suspended their demotions.

The fact that in Scotland the Championship isn’t scheduled to return until mid-october, almost three months on from the proposed Premiership restart in August, and that Thistle are currently in limbo with no official date yet agreed on League 1 is likely to give the two clubs hope said Afridi.

The two clubs claim in their petition that “sporting integrity” has not been upheld as neither were relegated on the pitch. Meanwhile, the Dundee votechanging farrago meant the written resolution to curtail the season is declared in the petition as rejected as “matter of fact and law”.

In their court papers, the Tynecastle club and Thistle accuse the SPFL of acting in manner “unfairly prejudicial” through a breach of the governing body’s “duty” to provide “sufficient evidence to members” about the ability to have payments forwarded to them without the requirement to decide on final league placings.the vote outcome was the “opression of a minority which was unfair and unjust”.

Afridi agrees, and cannot understand why the SPFL, and the French, Dutch and Belgian authorities did not foresee the problems they were creating by rushing to end their 2019-20 campaigns.

“The restriction of trade argument I have heard is absolutely right, and provides them the basis for a powerful case,” he said. “It could be argued that by ending the season and relegating Hearts was to deprive them of competition and the means to operate, and that cannot be considered right,” he said.

“It is perplexing that in Scotland, Belgium, Holland and France they did not make the most of the only positive thing the tremendously difficult situation created by pandemic shutdown provided them: time. I don’t believe there were justifiable reasons that forced them to make such hard and fast decisions with such haste. Decisions that, inevitably, have created so many issues further down the line.”

The lawyer considers there could be a “domino effect” that could lead to later litigation even if Hearts and Thistle are not successful in their current action.

“If you can’t compete, you can’t pay players. If players aren’t being paid then they have a case for suing you,” he said.

“In that instance, you have a case for suing the governing body preventing you from competing, and so preventing you from being able to meet those contractual obligations.”

“I don’t believe there were justifiable reasons that forced them to make such hard and fast decisions with such haste”

SAFWAN AFRIDI