Raith Rovers getting ready to pull out of Arbitration

jaws73

jaws73

Well-Known Member
Official Ticketer
Raith chairman admits club could have to pull out of legal battle

Raith Rovers chairman Bill Clark admits the club will decide in the next 48 hours whether they can continue their legal battle after conceding that spiralling costs could force the Stark’s Park outfit out of business.

Championship winners Dundee United yesterday appealed to fellow clubs and fans to help them continue their fight.

Hearts and Partick Thistle’s bid to avoid relegation and deny United, Raith and Cove Rangers promotion has been referred to a Scottish FA arbitration tribunal by the Court of Session.

To date, the three clubs have already had to pay out a combined £50,000 and they fear that figure will rise to £150,000

Clark admits losing the case and being told to pay Hearts and Partick’s legal fees would spell disaster for the League One champions.

He said: “It is a dilemma. We’re going to take another couple of days to decide whether we can continue or not. It’s all down to the cost.

“It has cost around £50,000 so far and it’s likely to be over £150,000 by the time we’re finished with the tribunal.

“And if we get Hearts and Partick Thistle’s costs awarded against us well, that’s something else we have to take into account and I don’t think any club can afford to take that chance. It would force us out of business.

“We’re weighing up the risks involved in doing that and letting the SPFL defend their case and see whatever happens.

“We’ll have to take the consequences, which could well be remaining in League One, which we would not be happy with at all.

“The other two teams are on the same page as well.

“Dundee Untied are the ones with most to lose but even they’re not confident they would have the money to continue if the two others pulled out.”

Clark admits Rovers are not keen to go cap in hand to their fans for more financial support, with the Raith faithful having already gifted over £100,000 to the club since the coronavirus crisis struck

He added: “We would be reluctant to do it because our supporters have been so good.

“So it’s a joint crowdfunding exercise between the three clubs, we’ll see what happens with that.”
 
A reminder of Doncaster's plea in a letter to clubs from end of June:

“A number of clubs have asked whether we can provide them with copies of the petition lodged by Heart of Midlothian PLC and Partick Thistle Limited naming The SPFL Limited and the companies owning the three promoted clubs (Dundee United, Raith Rovers and Cove Rangers) plus Stranraer FC Limited, as respondents in the action.

“Unfortunately, we have also been advised that it would not be appropriate, and arguably unlawful, to make available to non-parties to the litigation copies of the pleadings lodged in court.

“If SPFL Member Clubs wish to receive copies of documents lodged, then it would be necessary for each of them to apply to the court to become a respondent in the action and to lodge its own individual (or potentially joint) answers, or at least to formally associate itself with the existing answers of the promoted clubs.

“If any Member is considering doing so, it should contact Rod McKenzie and he will be pleased to advise on the required procedure and the options available.”

The plea to clubs to become respondents and presumably share legal costs obviously fell on deaf ears. What makes Dundee Utd, Raith and Cove think anything will have changed now?
 
zdor6Er.gif
 
There is the spfl case and they sound like they would prefer to take that option and drop out while they can survive that outcome - I’d think that is wise .

However , they really need to reflect on there position and judgement in all of this . Stealing titles is very unbecoming Bill Clark .
 
Just a pity nobody offered to pay for an independent enquiry.
There can only be 1 outcome from 2 potential solutions (null and void or resuming will be deemed impossible)
Hearts lose their appeal and get relegated. Not allowed to asndppeal.
Hearts & Thistle win their case and , for the good of Scottish football, reconstruction with a 14 team top tier is forced upon the top division as as way of reducing losses.
 
Last edited:
Restless Native said:
would you be confident gambling the clubs existence on a theory that somehow a legally cast ballot paper can be revoked?

The SPFL Board are only interested in self preservation, do they really care if Dundee United are screwed over instead of Hearts?
Click to expand...
If I started the case I’d have made sure I was able to go through with it and that would have included the idea of being pretty sure of the case I would be presenting and the stance I was defending.
 
Raith Rovers bailing and Dundee United begging whilst Cove have said nothing so far kinda sums Scottish football up.

Absolute tinpot joke of a footballing set up we have in this country. Strachan might be a wee weapon but his comments a few weeks ago about what it takes to be a proper professional outfit in this country were bang on.
 
So if hearts and particle win their case .does that mean that the scum would lose their tainted title. If you can religated surely you can,t have a winner.
 
At what point will a consensus opinion be obtained that this whole fiasco was avoidable. The executive of the SPFL were determined, to the point of riding roughshod over any pretence of corporate governance, to call the season. The gang of three are wholly responsible, aided and abetted by Dundee, for this shambles and they should be removed from their positions as soon as possible.

However in this idiot infested structure they seek executive powers to combat the effects of Covid-19. Is there anyone who would be 100% certain that these powers won’t be granted. You really have to despair at the running of the game in Scotland.
 
GazzaG said:
Hardly.

The filth got their title.
Like 2012, clubs are finding out what it's like to be used and cast aside at the filths leisure.

They've served their purpose to the mentally challengeds, there's no need for peter to even acknowledge they exist now.
Click to expand...

Exactly. Doesn't make any difference to them whether it's Dundee United or Hearts in the league. They already got what they wanted, so why would they give them anything.
 
Pretty much begging celtic to help here. Wont happen though, they already have what they want so they will keep silent on it all. Until peter has a rowsing speech to make .........
 
You would imagine Cove Rangers would be the most exposed club of the three given there relatively weaker revenues .
Have they got themselves some cash reserves and decided to spend them on this fiasco ?
 
ChildOfGod said:
You would imagine Cove Rangers would be the most exposed club of the three given there relatively weaker revenues .
Have they got themselves some cash reserves and decided to spend them on this fiasco ?
Click to expand...

A statement released by Cove Rangers this afternoon said: "On the day that the SPFL have released the Premiership fixture list for 2020/21, which is scheduled to start on August 1, instead of looking forward and planning for the forthcoming season, we find ourselves embroiled in preparation work for the SFA arbitration process that starts this week in respect of the action raised by Heart of Midlothian and Partick Thistle.

"As confirmed in our joint statement on Friday, we, along with Dundee United and Raith Rovers, were pleased with Lord Clark’s decision to refer the dispute to arbitration, however we remain clearly upset that we are having to devote considerable time and incur significant legal costs in defending this action. Together, we have already incurred costs of over £50,000, and face further legal fees for the arbitration process that could take the total bill to over £150,000.

"Given the serious financial implications of these escalating legal costs for Dundee United, Raith Rovers and ourselves, the clubs are still considering withdrawing from the arbitration process.

"However, this would allow the expert panel of arbiters to judge the case raised by Heart of Midlothian and Partick Thistle without any submissions from us in defending our position against the Heart of Midlothian and Partick Thistle petition, which seeks to reverse a decision that was made by 81% of the SPFL member clubs.

"If successful in their action, in our opinion Heart of Midlothian and Partick Thistle would compromise the sporting integrity of the SPFL with clubs having been declared champions of their league not being promoted.

"Having won League Two by a considerable margin and having already prepared for the required investment to participate in League One, a decision to overturn the SPFL resolution that was supported by 34 of the 42 member clubs would be seriously prejudicial for us and our fans.

"Heart of Midlothian and Partick Thistle could also be awarded significant sums in terms of compensation. Their compensation claim is for a total of £10 million. For the SPFL and its member clubs this would have potentially catastrophic consequences, with any compensation payment made to Heart of Midlothian and Partick Thistle being paid directly out of SPFL funds that are distributed to all clubs each season as prize money.

"It is with these factors in mind, that, along with Dundee United and Raith Rovers, we are asking our fellow member clubs for support in defending this action, which has not only potentially grave consequences for us, but every SPFL club. We also intend running a crowdfunding campaign to raise money to help fund the huge legal bills that we have and will incur.

"We hope that as well as our own supporters, fans of clubs across Scotland will see this as a worthy cause to get behind, in that if Heart of Midlothian and Partick Thistle are successful in their action it could have serious ramifications for the whole of Scottish football."
 
I thought all clubs got 50k from that Hearts investor guy? That should just about cover costs.
 
be11y said:
I thought all clubs got 50k from that Hearts investor guy? That should just about cover costs.
Click to expand...
It was to go towards community funding charity whatever, not for the actual clubs to use onn themselves which is a bit strange. It was supposed to be a grant to help the clubs initially or so I thought.
 
"Having won League Two by a considerable margin and having already prepared for the required investment to participate in League One, a decision to overturn the SPFL resolution that was supported by 34 of the 42 member clubs would be seriously prejudicial for us and our fans. "

They only voted to get their money, not for any sporting integrity.
 
aldoshmaldo said:
Why isn’t the spfl defending them? They made the decision.

Ridiculous state of affairs.
Click to expand...

Yer nearly there.

You see, the SPFL didn't make the decision. The members voted for the decision, based on the information given to them by the executive, who may or may not have achieved the result they wanted by nefarious means.

When legally challenged on that, the SPFL invited individual members to join them in defending the decision. The only members to publicly accept this call to arms, were the members who they promoted, ergo, the clubs with most to lose.

This invitation, was quite simply a PR stunt, which is the equivalent of the SPFL asking 3 pals to come over, when in reality they are hostages.

Asking Dundee Utd, Raith & Cove to join them in legal action, is a bit like encouraging 3 people to sue the bank, because they transferred £1m into 3 different accounts, then asking the courts to throw out the request of the original owners of the money to recover their funds.

The truth is, these 3 members were asked to champion the cause of throwing the case out. The actions of the SPFL has created enough doubt, that that was not going to happen. It didn't, and now reality sets in. These clubs could lose so much money, it could put them out of business. Amazingly though, their gripe is still with Hearts & Partick. Classic case of Stockholm syndrome if you ask me.

FBS
 
I’ll be honest I do have some sympathy for the clubs. They didn’t ask to be dragged into this and they were hardly going to vote against being awarded their titles were they.

The blame for this lies firmly at the spfls door.
 
Such a large number of these clubs operate on a shoe string and offer nothing to football. The only good thing that might come out of the COVID19 pandemic is some of these ‘diddy’ teams going out of business. Hopefully one or two of said diddy team will be in the top league! I for one hope Hertz and Thistle win.
 
What happens if the three clubs decide not to defend this action? Does this give the SPFL an escape route? Could they not state positions decided and champions declared but no relegation? That would suit everyone involved in this grubby affair.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Latest posts

Back
Top