Short-term restructuring would look 'narrow-minded', say Hamilton Academical

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Clevid Dikamona and Alex JakubiakImage source, SNS
Image caption,

Hearts' loss away to St Mirren on 11 March was the last Premiership match played

Scottish league restructuring just for the short term would look "a bit narrow-minded", says Hamilton Academical chairman Allan Maitland.

A task force is assessing the Scottish Professional Football League set-up amid the coronavirus-enforced hiatus.

The 12-team Premiership is suspended and the SPFL voted to end the 10-team second, third and fourth tiers.

But Maitland says increasing the top flight to 14 just for one season is "not our preferred choice".

Hearts are currently bottom of the Premiership and would be relegated if the league was called early owing to the inability to play the remaining 49 fixtures.

Tynecastle chair Ann Budge and Hamilton director Les Gray are co-chairing the 15-strong reconstruction task force and Budge has indicated her preference for reconstituting the leagues for just one or two seasons.

Meanwhile, League Two clubs have agreed to back a 14-14-14 structure - meaning any other reconstruction plan would almost certainly falter if they do.

And Maitland told the Only Accies podcast: "I understand the value of saying, 'let's just make sure nobody is penalised, it's nobody's fault that this has happened, so next year we will be able to revert'.

"But equally it looks very much like it's to save Hearts as a one-off season and that doesn't sound right. It looks a bit narrow-minded.

"A longer-term solution of a 14-team league would work much better as far as we are concerned and that's the way we are going to vote for it."

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