SPFL reconstruction back on agenda with Ann Budge document
- Published
Hearts owner Ann Budge has been given the green light to look again at reconstruction
Potential league reconstruction in Scotland is back on the table just a week after original talks broke down.
Hearts owner Ann Budge is to work on a document regarding a temporary change to the league pyramid.
It follows a top-flight club meeting on Friday at which key members including Rangers, Celtic and Aberdeen backed her call for the issue to be revisited.
The Tynecastle club are bottom of the Scottish Premiership and will be relegated if the league is called off.
A reconstruction taskforce to look at change, headed by Budge and Hamilton Academical's Les Gray, was scrapped after top-flight clubs deemed reconstruction would not get enough support.
Moving from a 12-10-10-10 format to a 14-14-14 structure had seemed the most likely option to succeed, given that the backing of nine of the 12 Premiership clubs was needed, along with eight in the Championship and 15 across Leagues One and Two.
The other proposal under consideration would have added Kelty Hearts and Brora Rangers to the bottom tier in a 14-14-16 model.
That needed the approval of 11 of the 12 Premiership clubs, 17 in total from the top flight and Championship, and 32 of the current 42 in all divisions.
Hearts, Championship side Partick Thistle and League One club Stranraer are all in line to start the new campaign in a lower division next term.
Speaking after talks broke down this month, Budge said the club would "take further advice" should they be "expelled" from the Scottish Premiership.
"It is fundamentally wrong that any club should be unfairly penalised by exceptional decisions that have had to be taken to deal with the current crisis," said the Hearts owner, whose side are four points adrift with eight games still to play. "I would stand by that view, regardless of Hearts' own position.
"To pour more financial hardship on specific clubs, given what we are all going through both now and for the foreseeable future, is both outrageous and shameful."