OVERVIEW
Background
Scottish Football was suspended by the Scottish FA on 13th March 2020. As a consequence of that suspension, the SPFL Board (via a Written Resolution on 8th April 2020) called an end to the season for the Championship, League 1 and League 2 Divisions on 15th April 2020. The Premiership was subsequently ended on 18th May 2020.
Determining how best to deal with the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic for the football world has been and continues to be incredibly complex. This is widely accepted by all. Across Europe, only one other major Professional Football League (the French League), along with the SPFL, has opted to allow teams to be relegated. In France, this case has now been referred to the Court d”Etat in what could be a protracted legal process. In Scotland, the option still remains to avoid this route, simply by adjusting the structure of the League. As things stand, the principle of Sporting Integrity has been compromised and there is widespread agreement that relegation under the current circumstances is unjust. The fact that there is a growing realisation that some form of league restructuring will be needed to help Clubs to protect their businesses and ensure their own survival, suggests the time to do this is now.
Options
a) Financial Compensation
There have been many expressions of sympathy for the Clubs, which have been relegated due to the early closure of Season 2020/21. However, sympathy is not what is needed; sympathy does not make these decisions right; sympathy does not save jobs!
Some Clubs have expressed the view that the Clubs impacted should be offered financial compensation. While this sentiment is appreciated it is difficult to argue that this would right the injustice.
In Hearts recently submitted Representation Letter to support our UEFA Financial Fair Play submission, we advised that relegation would lose Hearts, under normal circumstances, between £3-4 million in income. This figure takes no account of any further financial damage that might be caused by COVID-19 disruption continuing into Season 2020/21, which now looks inevitable.
For other Member Clubs to compensate for this level of loss in any meaningful way they would themselves lose out significantly at a time when everyone is facing their own financial challenges.
Hearts being relegated will not only cause significant financial damage to Hearts, but will result in other Premiership Clubs funding a £300k parachute payment next season. This money, plus any compensation payments agreed, could be much more effectively utilised in the fight for survival.
b) League Change
I firmly believe that introducing a 3 League structure, for a 2 year period while we deal with these extraordinary circumstances, is the only sensible way to achieve the following outcomes.
• Avoid causing significant and unnecessary financial hardship to all Member Clubs.
• Facilitate Clubs of different scales to work together to focus on how each group is going to survive.
• Send out a strong message to the fans and to the football world in general, that Scottish Clubs are standing united to defeat our common enemy; namely, this pandemic, which is threatening to decimate, if not destroy, Scottish Football.
All of the above would be to the significant benefit of Scottish Football.
PROPOSED CHANGE
In a previous paper, I made the point that “emergency situations call for emergency measures”. Surely, no-one would question that we are dealing with an emergency situation.
The emergency measures being proposed involve implementing an amended structure, for two seasons, to minimise the negative outcomes created by the current emergency.
The proposal would see:
• an enlarged Premier Division of 14 teams, based on no relegation and 2 promotions (Dundee United and Inverness Caledonian Thistle) from Season 2019/20
• an enlarged Championship Division of 14 teams, based on no relegation and 6 promotions (Raith Rovers plus the teams in position 2-6 of League 1) from Season 2019/20
• the combining of the remaining League 1 Clubs with League 2 Clubs to create a new 14 team League 1. *(See below)
This proposal would see a more streamlined League structure that would facilitate improved communication and cooperation both within and across all 3 Divisions. This would also ensure no teams are further disadvantaged due to COVID-19. Most importantly, it would provide greater flexibility to deal with likely on-going problems over the next 2 seasons.
(* There is still an outstanding matter to be addressed regarding the Highland and Lowland League Play-off competition. One way of handling this would be to further increase the new League 1, to 16 teams. This would be in keeping with the underlying principle behind enlarging the Divisions and could be accommodated very easily.)
