HEARTS are now confirmed as a Championship club for next season and will join Scot Gardiner’s Inverness Caley Thistle as the Highlanders have missed out on a free Premiership pass after clubs today decided against the reconstruction plans put on the table by the SPFL, with only 16 of the 42 clubs voting for the plan.
Scot Gardiner of course attempted to push through a Null and Void agenda that would have denied Celtic a ninth consecutive title and would have benefited the club that he supports and would like to work for.
Today’s news from the SPFL means that the Scottish Premiership next season will have twelve teams with Hearts being relegated and Championship winners Dundee Utd being promoted. The other three leagues will remain the same with ten teams in each division and will each play out a one off 27 game programme with a later start for these three divisions as a direct result of the pandemic crisis.
📝 Club Statement
💬 To our amazing fans we say that we cannot, and will not, sit idly by and watch the decisions made in the past few months further damage Heart of Midlothian FC. Thank you for fighting for us, now allow us to do the same for you.
➡️ https://t.co/yXTVt1Zayh pic.twitter.com/R28a3N4b3I
— Heart of Midlothian FC (@JamTarts) June 15, 2020
Had the proposal put forward by the SPFL Board last week for consideration today by the clubs, gained enough support Hearts would have remained in the top division and would have been joined by Inverness Caley Thistle while both Partick Thistle and Stranraer would have avoided relegation. The club that we should have the most sympathy for in all of this is clearly Partick Thistle who are being relegated because they were two points adrift of safety but had a game in hand.
Hearts are now faced with the prospect of accepting their Championship fate or going through with their threat of taking legal action and all that could mean for the Tynecastle side. Today’s news was confirmed, a outlined below, on the official SPFL website :
SPFL CONFIRMS 12-10-10-10 LEAGUE STRUCTURE FOR NEXT SEASON
CHAMPIONSHIP CLUBS APPROVE 27-GAME PROGRAMME
The SPFL Board today (Monday) announced that a league-wide consultation exercise has shown there is insufficient support for a new divisional structure and that the current 12-10-10-10 format will remain in place for Season 2020/21.
16 of the 42 clubs favoured changing to a 14-10-10-10 structure, but this was short of the numbers required* and, as a result, the SPFL Board has agreed to draw a line under reconstruction talks.
Separately, the ten Championship clubs have voted to approve a 27-game programme, with teams playing each other three times, rather than four.
Neil Doncaster, chief executive of the SPFL said:
“In recent weeks, we’ve been consulting closely with our clubs regarding possible reconstruction and, based on the feedback we received, the board decided to ask all 42 clubs to give their views so that we could have absolute clarity, which we’ve achieved today. “Whilst a number of clubs were in favour of a new divisional set-up, the support for it was insufficient and we will now move forward with a fixture programme for Season 2020/21 based on the current 12-10-10-10 structure.
“Due to the restrictions forced upon us by the coronavirus outbreak, the Championship clubs also voted overwhelmingly to play each other three times next season, rather than four, which enables a later start to the Championship league season.
“Now that we have a confirmed structure for next season, the SPFL’s fixturing team will begin work on the Premiership fixture list, which will start on the weekend of 1 August, and the Championship fixture list, which will start on the weekend of 17 October.”
Discussions regarding arrangements for Leagues 1 and 2 remain ongoing.
