SFL meeting expected to signal end of Livingston

THE Scottish Football League says it will go into today's meeting with Livingston with "an open mind", but the First Division club look to be heading out of business after administrators started the liquidation process yesterday.

Livingston chairman Angelo Massone failed to meet a noon deadline to accept an offer of 25,000 to walk away and allow other interested parties to take charge. It means that interim manager Donald McGruther, of administrator Mazars, will meet the SFL's management committee at 2pm today, when he is expected to report that the West Lothian club is beyond rescue.

SFL operations director David Thompson insists there is no guarantee Livingston will suffer the same fate as Gretna – who went bust after they were relegated from the First to the Third Division a year ago – and said: "In the past, it's about guarantees – what guarantees you can give to fulfil fixtures.

"I think it will be up to Mr McGruther to come to the management committee and give certain assurances or guarantees about that."

Thompson added: "The management committee will listen to Mr McGruther's views and what he's got to say regarding the immediate situation and the future. I imagine they will look at things with a fairly open mind. After they have had a meeting with him, they will presumably have to discuss the situation.

"Rule 76 says any club who goes in for an insolvency procedure are in breach of the rules.

"The management committee thereafter have full power to deal with it as it thinks fit. There is nothing to say in tablets of stone about any sanction. The management committee will treat each particular case on its merits."