I'm with you on that, it surely would be unjustifiable to have the Tims awarded a title whilst promotion and relegation for everyone else is stopped.
However Hearts in their submission state that they do not want Scum stripped of the title, they could not have been any clearer.
Could this actually be a glaring error in their submission - is it possible for the arbitration to find you cannot have promotion/title winners without relegation but by specifically exempting the Premiership winners from any action the submission is actually flawed and therefore rejected?
If Hearts/Partick win their case to be reinstated into their original divisions it will be the panel's reason for this that becomes important.
If the original Resolution process is found to be incompetent and/or the Dundee vote found to be a valid 'NO' vote then the SPFL is back in the position it was prior to the vote (
i.e. season is incomplete).
The SPFL would then have to decide what to do next but at that juncture there will have been no title awards, no promotions and no relegations.
In terms of the BCD nature of the Arbitration we know that there is going to be evidence presented that will remain confidential.
What I am more concerned about is a judgement being delivered but the Arbitration panel not stating the reason why. I see no impediment to the reason for the judgement being stated as that wouldn't impinge on document confidentiality.
Will the judgement be Hearts/Partick/Stranraer are reinstated to their divisions (
with Dundee Utd/Raith/Cove reverting to their divisions)
OR
Will it be Hearts/Partick/Stranraer are reinstated to their divisions (
with Dundee Utd/Raith/Cove reverting to their divisions)
because.........................................
It is the 'because' bit that will matter if the 2019/20 season is pushed back to the SPFL in the position it was in before the Good Friday Resolution.
The SPFL will then have choices to make (
play out the season, cancel the season, declare something else). This is another reason that the SPFL Board better not be granted Emergency Powers via the 20th July vote as I am sure they will use them to dig the cabal out of the hole if things pan out the way described - and Scottish Football will have to suck it up. Perhaps McKenzie had the wherewithall to think about that hence the Emergency Powers Resolution under the guise of the 2020/21 season but knowing they might need it to sort out 2019/20 should things go tits up for them.
The Hearts/Partick case could of course fail but the reasons for that should also be stated.
It will be an interesting remaining period of this month, that's for sure.