JamesM82

Strong "did you enjoy the play, Mrs Lincoln?" vibe to that statement.

Although a team (Utrecht?) who had reached the Dutch cup final and could therefore have qualified for Europe were compensated for having that chance taken away from them. So if the Dutch ruling was applied to Scotland, Hibs and Hearts would be compensated for the Scottish Cup not being completed on time.

The SPFL won the main argument - the case is being referred to an SFA arbitration panel, rather than staying in court (which is what Hearts/Thistle wanted). Theoretically it could come back to court after arbitration, but that seems unlikely. Hearts/Thistle won a secondary argument about the release of documents, i.e. the SPFL will have to hand over relevant emails and phone records for that arbitration.

It's the arbitrators who decide. If either side doesn't like the outcome they would have to come up with some reason why the arbitrators were wrong in process or law, rather than just re-arguing the merits of the case.

He cites the Dundee vote as a reason for dismissing the Dundee United dismissal argument (although it's not the main reason). He dismissed the Hearts / Thistle argument that the action wasn't a "football dispute".

Exactly, this whole legal action has been a massive waste of time and money. Hearts / Thistle would have got arbitration if they had just asked for it in the first place, as Rod Petrie hinted at months ago. My assumption is that they wanted to go court because they don't want a "fair" outcome (i.e. a small award of cash compensation), they wanted all-out victory (reinstatement or millions).

Successful businesswoman Ann Budge and chums have been giving money to the SPFL for months, so what's another 50 grand between friends?

More like "sort it out amongst yourselves".

Only if you think there was ever a realistic chance of the judge dismissing the case at the procedural hearing (there wasn't). The problem for Hearts / Thistle now is if they appeal to court having not been satisfied by the arbitration outcome, they'll have to come up with a good explanation as to why the arbitration was unfair on them.

Per the Record: Assuming the Record are correct, the SPFL have won what they were arguing for. Hearts were wanting to go straight to court.

Only if they thought the organisation as a whole was incapable of handling it neutrally. An example of that would be the Man City European ban by UEFA. City haven't gone to court, FA or UEFA, they've gone to CAS. If Doncaster had any real influence the clubs would have voted for 14-10-10-10.

Oh no he hasn't.

They have. https://news.stv.tv/sport/sfa-determined-to-finish-scottish-cup-in-front-of-spectators?top (Finding two dates to finish the 2019/20 Scottish Cup is part of the reason the SPFL guy is complaining about the tightness of the 2020/21 fixture list.)

Because they want to preserve their neutrality in case they are used as an arbitrator. Rod Petrie said this in an interview before he stepped down. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/52508961

That's not going to happen today. Worst case scenario for Hearts is the judge agrees with the Dundee United QC and refers it to SFA arbitration without any recourse to going back to court. But even in that scenario it is still possible (I suppose) that the SFA arbitrator could support Hearts and Thistle. More likely is he agrees with the SPFL QC and refers it to arbitration and just suspends the court action, which Hearts could resume if they don't like the arbitration outcome. Or he could agree with the Hearts/Thistle QC and schedule a full court hearing and cut out the SFA.

Let me introduce you to a place called Northern Ireland. Their clubs wanted to complete the season, and left the 2019/20 season open as long as they could. UEFA imposed a 3 August deadline to nominate teams for their 2020/21 competitions, which then meant they had run out of time to finish the league. So the Northern Irish league was curtailed last week after all. If (for argument's sake) Dundee had stuck with their original intention to vote against curtailing 2019/20, we would have ended up curtailing anyway at a later date.

The most striking thing about Hearts last season is that they were relatively good against the bigger clubs (2 wins v Rangers, 2 wins v Hibs) and pish against the bottom six. That appears to have been due to "not trying" in the sense that the players were on high basic wages and weren't as motivated as they should have been (to win bonuses) against Accies, etc.

Record update:

Mervan Celik. I think he was their last signing before administration. Unfortunately, they did not use "Celik" on their tops.

Laughing stock of world football, etc.

IMO he looks more like Mr Potato Head.

Hearts fans: we've been uniquely impacted by Covid, we deserve reinstatement to the Premiership or massive financial compensation if we aren't. Also Hearts fans: LOL at Hibs for cutting costs.

You've been saying that since April. Forgive us if we don't take you seriously now.

If Covid comes back in a big way the Premiership won't be happening either.

Gives the EFL an almighty headache though. Much harder than normal to operate a club in administration (as there is bugger all income), which means there must be a significant risk that they won't complete their fixtures.