She's going to need her lawyer's number on speed-dial I think.
Ann Budge could be left marooned on Monday as she battles to save
Hearts from the catastrophic consequences of relegation.
The Tynecastle owner will take part in a 10am conference call with nine other
Championship clubs to discuss whether or not Scotland’s second tier might be able to get up and running next season behind closed doors after being shut down by the coronavirus crisis.
Budge hopes to persuade them that the game can be re-started without fans but
Record Sport understands the majority of those clubs are already convinced they cannot afford to play games until the government has given the green light for supporters to return to stadia.
That will ramp up the urgency of Budge’s attempts to reconstruct the
SPFL and her proposal for a new look set up is also expected to be circulated around all of Scotland’s 42 clubs today.
As we revealed on Saturday, a number of sympathetic top flight clubs have privately pledged to support
Budge’s proposals and vote to keep Hearts in an extended Premiership.
But we have also learned that the odds are stacking up heavily against the chances of any emergency reconstruction getting off the ground with one club chairman telling us: “It’s not a vote Ann needs - it’s more like a miracle.”
Any plan which proposes changes to the current payment structure to clubs in a new look league will require almost universal support, including 11 out of 12 top flight clubs.
And it’s almost certain that any attempt to restructure the top division without amending those payments would be doomed to fail from the start.
One source explained: “The prize money due to the club finishing 12th in Premiership is a great deal more than it would be for a club finishing in 14th place. In principle, who is going to vote for a reconstruction which could potentially see their own income fall?
“That’s why the payment amounts would almost certainly have to change if Hearts are to have any chance of getting this proposal through. The trouble is when the payments change, so too does the threshold of votes required.”
It is likely then that Hearts will need 11 top flight clubs to back Budge’s plan, even though six of them ganged up earlier this month to scupper previous reconstruction talks.
On top of that, they will also need a combined total of 75 per cent of clubs from across the Premiership and Championship - that’s 16 out of 22 clubs - to take their side.
Across all four divisions Hearts would need to secure the support of 32 of Scotland’s 42 clubs.