Hearts’ SPFL reconstruction proposal in full – based on 14-14-14 for two years with option for 14-14-16

dh1963

dh1963

Administrator
Staff member
Official Ticketer
Here is the Hearts League Reconstruction proposal sent to Scotland’s clubs this afternoon.

SunSport Online can reveal the plan being put forward by Jambos owner Ann Budge.

Her bid to revamp the set-up of Scottish football will be discussed by the SPFL board tomorrow.

Budge wants a 14-14-14 structure in three divisions - with an option to increase to the bottom league to 16 teams.

Hearts would be saved from relegation from the Premiership with Inverness Caley Thistle promoted along with Dundee United.

But crucially only for the next TWO YEARS.

Budge writes: “This document, at the most simple level, addresses two major issues, currently facing Scottish Football.

• The widely accepted and much debated unfairness and unjustness of relegating Clubs as a result of the early termination of Season 2019/20.

• The need to implement a more flexible League structure to cope with the huge challenges facing Clubs of all sizes, as they fight to survive the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The proposed restructure involves moving to 3 enlarged Divisions, each of which would focus on tackling the specific and different challenges facing the larger, the medium and the smaller (often part-time) Clubs within Scottish Football.

“With a growing awareness of what might be involved in getting back to playing football, so too is there a growing acceptance that not all Clubs may manage to play next season. The focus for many is turning to long-term survival.

“If, unfortunately, some Clubs are unable to compete, there will be a greater likelihood that League competitions will still be able to continue, if these larger groupings are put in place, albeit not necessarily in the proposed format. We might end up with 14 teams in the Premiership, with 10 or 12 in the Championship, and with even fewer in League 1. Some are suggesting that we may end up with only 2 Divisions next season. However, every Club should have the option to make a choice.

“There are broadly 3 scenarios facing Clubs for the coming season:

• Play games behind closed doors for as long as necessary to get the season underway

• Delay the start to the season until supporters are able to get back into stadiums

• Hibernate for a season until the emergency is over

“It is not for me to suggest who should and who shouldn’t play football. It is for Clubs themselves to make that decision. For that reason, the suggested format assumes all 42 Clubs, structured in such a way as to allow each Division to decide what is best for them.

“This is not about permanent reconstruction. It is about finding a path to deal with the emergency situation, which is likely to impact all member Clubs for the next 2 seasons. When we are through this emergency we can look then at how best to move forward to start to rebuild Scottish Football.”

This current paper adds some detail to my initial proposition, which is largely unchanged. What has changed, however, in the intervening 2 weeks, is the growing realisation of just how badly Season 2020/2021 is likely to be impacted by the effects of Covid-19. There is a growing fear that a number of Clubs will be unable to play next season. More than ever, the focus is on survival. Changes to the League structure seem almost inevitable.

In light of the increasingly uncertain times we are facing, I want to urge every Member Club to look at this proposal not as a way to save Hearts, Partick Thistle and Stranraer from relegation, but as a better way for Scottish Football to deal with the current emergency, while at the same time righting an unintended injustice.
 
This is not about permanent League Reconstruction, with all the angst that topic brings. Please do not assess the proposal in those terms. Rather, look at the proposal as a way to enable Clubs with hugely varying levels of resource, to group together to help as many Clubs as possible to survive through this difficult period.

Doing nothing will simply lead to us being forced to take action in the very near future. It is better to take steps now in an organised, considered and timely way rather than wait until some of our clubs hit crisis point. Doing nothing could be seen as unforgiveable by fans who wish to see Scottish football come together at an unparallelled time in the game’s history.

I have proposed that the 42 Clubs be split into 3 Divisions. While far from homogeneous groupings, these groups of Clubs have a better chance of survival if they work cooperatively together to meet the different sets of challenges they each face. We need 3 survival plans to get through this. One size most certainly does not fit all!

a) There is pressure to get our Premiership Clubs back to playing football as quickly as

possible to protect our Broadcasting contract with Sky. This contract contributes a large percentage of the income of the majority of Clubs, across all leagues. Assurances have been given by the SPFL Chief Executive, following discussions with his senior counterparts at Sky, that enlarging the Premiership to 14 teams will not be unacceptable to Sky and will not be used as a bargaining tool in any future negotiations. In fact, the proposed enlargement of the Premiership will be seen positively, bringing with it as it does, both Edinburgh and Highland derbies. It is also be noted that based on recent viewing figures published by the SPFL, Sky’s numbers would be considerably impoverished by the current plans to relegate Hearts.

Having said all of this, not being able to return to play early in Season 2020/21 is another matter entirely in terms of the new Sky deal. It looks increasingly likely that the only way to address this and get the season started will be to initially play games behind closed doors. This will bring major challenges for Premiership Clubs, not least in financial terms.

The demands on Premiership Clubs will be enormous in terms of complying with safety and protection requirements. The “return to training” and, the next stage, the “return to playing” protocols currently being outlined are hugely demanding and will be very costly to implement. We need Clubs who have the resources and the infrastructure to be able to meet these requirements, and indeed the willingness to do so, if we are to generate this much needed income stream from Broadcasting for everyone. Hearts is one of those Clubs. This is not the time to be expelling one of the League’s biggest and best resourced Clubs from the Premiership.

Everyone knows that the financial support we receive from our fans is exceptional. For over 7 years fans have contributed almost £1.5m per annum to support the Club. Since football was cancelled our supporters’ organisation, Foundation of Hearts, has amazingly had over 800 additional/increased pledges. Our benefactors too, continue to stand behind the Club. They have committed to continue to support us, not just throughout this current crisis, but for the next 5 years. Strong clubs are essential for a strong League and a strong Hearts has a big part to play in this.

With this kind of financial backing, Hearts is in a position to fund the Testing Equipment and other resources needed to enable a safe “return to training and to playing” in line with Government guidelines. We are also willing to share these
resources with other Clubs, across all Divisions in the League, as requirements become clearer. The possibility of operating through “Hubs” is currently being considered and if that route proved to be sensible, Hearts is very well placed to help. Geography would undoubtedly play a part in this, but we would be happy to offer the use of Tynecastle’s facilities, on a non-profit basis, to other Premiership, Championship or League 1 clubs, where fixture scheduling allowed. Our recent infra- structure investment has provided us with 2 sets of UEFA standard changing rooms, medical facilities, tunnels and technical areas. Hearts could make these facilities available, as well as TV and media facilities. For example, were it desirable for scheduling purposes, with duplicate sets of facilities, 2 games could even be played on one day, without the need for deep cleaning in-between.

We also have access to highly flexible training facilities. Hearts not being in the Premier League at this time would seriously limit our ability to help Scottish Football.

b) Many of our Championship Clubs are going to have to work hard to survive. Few, if

any, could afford to get involved in Behind Closed Door matches. Few, if any, have the facilities to enable social-distancing measures to be complied with, even for training. There are already discussions underway around postponing the start of next season for these teams until such times as supporters are allowed back into our stadiums.

A whole different set of solutions are going to be required for these Clubs. Once again, I would argue that this is not the time to be expelling well resourced, well run and well supported Clubs like Partick Thistle from the Championship. They will be able to meet whatever is required of them to ensure they can play next season. This proposed adjustment to the Leagues would enable them to contribute at this level.

c) Our League 1 and League 2 Clubs are similarly going to face different challenges.

They are, in the main, going to struggle to fund the measures that might need to be implemented to enable them to play football at all next season. There has already been talk about some of these Clubs choosing to “moth-ball” their operations for the season. If that is indeed the best option for survival for some Clubs, then that is indeed what should be accommodated. If not, then they have to work together to determine what alternative solutions are best for them.

The proposed changes, creating 3 bigger leagues, means that if, unfortunately, some Clubs cannot see a way to play this season, there will hopefully be sufficient Clubs in each League to allow the Season to go ahead, albeit in a modified form. Maximum flexibility is crucial.

In short, the Premiership needs Hearts more than the Championship does. The Championship needs Partick Thistle more than the lower Leagues do. Let’s focus on dealing with the problem of saving Scottish Football from a position, which plays to our strengths and minimizes our weaknesses.

This paper is not about restructuring. It is about survival. The need to protect Scotland’s national game and our professional clubs is of paramount importance, not just to our staff, our players, our supporters but to the communities we serve. The impact of a club disappearing will hit local communities hard, both from a social and an economic perspective. Given everything else that our communities are dealing with at this time, we must stand together to try to ensure they do not lose their football clubs too.
 
So shortsighted it’s unreal, don’t expel us we will let you use our testing facilities. Don’t expel us we are too big to go down. Don’t expel us it’s not fair.

Handing out trophies to teams who never won their respective leagues wasn’t fair but no one gives a shit about that.

Rangers better not vote in favour of this clowns proposals.
 
Last edited:
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.)
 
i was looking at the heart forum today,its really bizarre as they seem to think the SPFL look after us and the mentally challengeds, saying stuff like 'they'd never do anything like this to the bigot bros' etc

are they really that thick?
 
League Set-up

Were the Divisions to be re-grouped as suggested, the details of the competition would be as outlined below, assuming a “normal” season. It is highly unlikely, however, that Season 2020/21 is going to be “normal”. Significant disruption is anticipated, in terms of starting dates and numbers of games played, across potentially all Divisions. It is also entirely possible that some part-time Clubs may choose not to play football at all, if the constraints imposed by COVID-19 are too demanding. Changes to what is outlined below, seem inevitable for next season. Hopefully, however, season 2021/22 will see a move towards greater stability, facilitating a normal competition.

a) Premiership Clubs would play each other twice (once at home and once away) providing 26 pre-split League Matches. Following this the top 6 teams would play each other twice more (once at home and once away) providing further 10 post-split League Matches and a total of 36 League Matches for the Season. The bottom 8 teams would also play each other twice more (once at home and once away) providing 14 post-split League Matches and a total of 40 Matches for the Season.

One criticism that has been levelled at the above structure is that the earlier split means there could be too many “meaningless” matches for the bottom 8 teams following the split. It has been suggested that this could be addressed by introducing a Play-off situation between teams that finish 5th, 6th and 7th to gain the new UEFA Conference League entry spot.

Concern has also been expressed that Clubs in the bottom half of the Division could lose out on a possible home game against either Celtic or Rangers, which would impact their gate receipt income. This would be offset by virtue of being guaranteed an extra home game.

On the plus side, fixture congestion would be eased slightly for the 6 Clubs at the top of the Premiership, which has been a long-stated objective, particularly for Clubs involved in European competitions.

b) Championship Clubs could follow the competition structure of the Premiership described above. Alternatively, Clubs may prefer to divide into a top 8 and bottom 6 post- split after 26 League Matches. This alternative model might provide greater jeopardy and interest amongst the bottom 6, in terms of fighting to avoid relegation or play-off. Similarly, it would extend the interest in the Season for Clubs 7 and 8 at the split by providing the opportunity to improve their position in the remaining 14 League Matches to compete for promotion or play-off positions.

c) League 1 Clubs could either follow the competition structure of the Premiership or the alternate option as described for the Championship.

The major advantage for Clubs in the Championship and League 1 is that it addresses the current problem of playing every Club 4 times a season, which is not at all popular with Clubs, with players or most importantly with supporters. It is often stated that the current format is so unpopular that it negatively impacts attendances. Anything that encourages supporters to come to live games can only be good for the game.

10

Fixture Scheduling for the proposed structure

This structure would see an overall increase in the number of matches played across the full season, as follows. The figures exclude Play-off matches.

Premiership Current 12 team structure : Each team plays 38 games per season

New 14 team structure : 6 teams play 36 games per season 8 teams play 40 games per season Lower leagues

Current 10 team structure : Each team plays 36 games per season

New 14 team structure: 6 teams play 36 games per season 8 teams play 40 games per season

This would result in an overall increase of matches across the Season. Having discussed this with Iain Blair, he is confident that this can be accommodated. While fixture congestion is regularly discussed as a challenge, this occurs in the main in the Premiership as a consequence of date restrictions and is, therefore, not a major consideration.

This structure would mean that 24 Clubs would play additional matches, providing potential for additional gate receipts; 12 Clubs would see no change in the number of games; 6 Clubs (Top 6 Premiership Clubs) would play 2 fewer League fixtures, which would be seen as advantageous, as stated earlier.

The potential for greater variety of fixtures, coupled with an increase in the number of League fixtures should be seen as a benefit to most Clubs.

Promotions, Relegations and Play-Offs

Rules governing Promotions and Relegations would continue to apply as at present.

That said, should disruption caused by COVID-19 be significant in Season 2020/21, resulting in it being impossible to play a full round of fixtures, then it may be appropriate to vote by a simple majority, for no promotions or relegations for that Season only.

Play-offs competition rules would similarly continue to apply as at present.
 
DISTRIBUTION MODEL

The only change to the current model would arise if Clubs in positions 13 and 14 (ie. the 2 additional Clubs promoted to the Premiership) were to see their percentage share of funds increased to bring them more in line with other Premiership Clubs. Currently, the Club in position 12 receives 4.5% in line with the Premiership Distribution Model. The Club at the top of the Championship receives 2.25% in line with the Championship Model. This proposal suggests increasing the percentage for Clubs 13 and 14 to remove this anomaly.

11

There are a number of possible options in terms of modifying the distribution table. One possible model is shown in Appendix A, which is based on the Premiership Clubs percentages being varied to accommodate Clubs 13 and 14 in the Premier Division. This model would see no change to the distribution percentages of the non-Premier Division Clubs, in recognition of the fact that many of these Clubs may well be facing serious financial challenges.

This option is suggested since, as stated earlier in this paper, if no restructure is approved and Heart of Midlothian FC remains relegated, then Premiership clubs will be faced with a reduction in funds of £300K to cover the parachute payment.

Additionally, should the 3 relegated teams be offered financial compensation, this will clearly mean less money paid to all Clubs, with any deductions in line with the current distribution table.

The financial impact on Clubs of this proposed adjustment to the League structure is not considered to be material and should certainly not be a reason for rejecting the proposed model.

In Summary:

As stressed throughout this document, it is generally accepted that the coming Season is highly likely to be significantly disrupted by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Contingency plans will have to be put in place, although at this time, what these plans will have to deal with is not at all clear. Questions regarding when and how we will be able to return to play, are still not able to be answered. There is genuine concern around how many Clubs will be able to play at all next season and indeed whether all 42 professional Clubs will survive.

The proposed change to the structure for the next 2 seasons, making as it does greater use of the split concept, allows for greater flexibility to modify the season length by Division. Streamlining the structure to create enlarged Divisions, allows for some Clubs being able to opt out of playing next season if they are forced to do so for survival reasons, while hopefully still allowing the competition to continue without too many additional changes.

In summary, these changes will help us deal with the perceived unfairness issue caused by these one-off extraordinary circumstances and will build in greater flexibility for dealing with the as yet unknown challenges that lie ahead over the next 12-18 months. We will then have the opportunity when we are through this emergency to assess the best way forward for Scottish Football. Unless, via the normal voting structure, there is agreement to do otherwise, this paper assumes we would revert to our current League structure at the end of Season 2021/22, consistent with this being an interim arrangement to deal with an emergency situation. We would recommend that in January, 2022, Clubs would be asked to vote, based on what the landscape looks like at that time, whether to automatically revert or to further consider the most appropriate way forward for the betterment of Scottish Football.
 
If it's not permanent then there is no point and it'll be difficult to get others to buy in. Appreciate for Hearts it's all about saving their arses but why should anyone else buy into that?
 
Prepared simply to protect Hearts.

We can not swallow a proposal that means that certain aspects of the League are declared valid while others are not.

On a personal basis, I believe that Hearts would have had a slightly better than 50/50 chance of avoiding relegation if the season wasn't allowed to complete. But that didn't happen due to the drive to award Celtic the title for all sorts of wicked reasons.

The season should have been declared null and void, and that is what the legal action should force.
 
Can’t really see the point in three divisions of 14, unless the second and third division end after 26 matches. Pointless splitting the lower divisions when teams should be much more evenly matches
 
What is the best strategic decision for Rangers in this?

A. Reject it, as not only will it cost us money by diluting the Premiership money between 2 more clubs, not only is it temporary, but morally it helps validate awarding a title that wasn't won. The option most Rangers fans would want.

B. Accept it, fully expecting it to fall anyway. This keeps the potential legal alliance with the unfairly relegated clubs, plus portrays us as putting individual grievance to one side.
 
We are at war with the authorities, Hearts are one of the few clubs that stood with us. Their will be further battles ahead hopefully in the not too distant future. I'm sure our directors will have been appreciative of Hearts support and will give proper consideration to the proposal.
 
The clubs in the current league 1 will never vote for this.

It would be putting most of them in Scottish Football's lowest tier.

As much as I think it's unfair to relegate Hearts and Partick, part of me wants us to vote against as a wee payback to the way Hearts behaved towards us in 2012.
 
Last edited:
All she had to do was play the ISM's game and use her sex to her advantage, against these abhorrently weak men.

After all, the big boys in the room love to be the victims.

But Anne wasn't for Budging.
 
BeithBear93 said:
I know it will never happen but we would be better off in England
Click to expand...
Covid will see alot of changes and reorganisation England will not have their existing 92 teams we will not the 42 we have some big names in EFL could go to the wall some smaller EPL teams may go to the wall our P/T teams should just about survive or mid rankers anybody in top two divisions apart from us and the scum are at risk
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Latest posts

Back
Top