I understand the motives of some of those clubs who don’t want to see the league campaign halted with the prizes handed out – and the consequences with them – for the 30 games that have been played already. Sevco’s eagerness to see the thing voided entirely is understandable; so is Hearts’.
I will talk about the Ibrox club later, but for Hearts the price could be even greater and for the life of me I cannot understand why they would take the risk.
If they are relegated, they will take a financial hit; we all know this.
But as yesterday’s news proved, they are on the brink of taking a huge hit either way. The news that that they have offered their employees the choice between 50% salary cuts and packing their bags entirely will have gone down like a lead weight in their dressing room and elsewhere.
Hearts is now poised on the brink.
Their crisis, like the one at Ibrox, will almost certainly extend far beyond this campaign. Their announcement yesterday means that the whole of their playing squad could vote to terminate their contracts and walk right now, simply by saying that they don’t want to sign the new deals they are being offered.
Their club could have agreed that it was best that the league positions be respected, and prepared themselves for Championship football.
Now what they face is a scenario where this crisis drags on for another two months, during which time half their squad will probably choose to walk out. Woe betide them if games are scheduled and the leagues re-opened by then.
They will find themselves on the end of hammerings, and be relegated anyway with not the slightest hope of redemption.
They will have ended the season crippled both financially and in the footballing sense, with a squad not even fit for Championship football and mounting problems with debts.
But voiding the season carries enormous risks for them as well … with a lot of their squad ready to walk, they aren’t going to be in any fit state to survive the SPL next season.
Hearts are a bloated club, carrying too much debt.
Administration looks a certainty right now … and the moment this season is suspended it kicks in for the next campaign …
At the time of writing, even for finishing last in the league they can access a pot of around £1.1 million, or 4.5% of the total share.
That money will not be paid though – not one brass bean of it – if this campaign is voided, as many seem to want.
And instead, they have allied themselves to the “void the season” goons and loons.
Hearts may think it benefits them to be on board that bandwagon, but those driving it have no interest in them at all, and no interest in what’s best for them … they aren’t going to be along for the ride. They are going to get dumped in the middle of the road and run over.