Hearts and Partick Thistle claim £10m as they lodge court papers to overrule SPFL relegations

Hearts and Partick Thistle have lodged their civil case at the Court of Session.

Hearts and Partick Thistle today lodged papers at Edinburgh’s Court of Session to begin a civil case against the Scottish Professional Football League over their relegations.

They want reinstatement to the leagues they played in last season – the Premiership and Championship respectively – and if the court reject that appeal they want compensation.

Hearts are claiming £8 million and Thistle £2 million.

The SPFL have seven days to respond to the petition. League officials maintain they acted legally after more than 80 per cent of member clubs voted to end the 2019/20 season early due to coronavirus – resulting in Hearts, Partick Thistle and Stranraer being sent down.

Hearts and Thistle have taken the matter to court claiming the decision should be overruled. They believe the SPFL ‘changed rules’ on promotion and relegation and say they won’t hesitate to request an interdict to stop the 2020/21 Premiership campaign kicking off on August 1 if necessary.

If the Court of Session rejects their initial appeal then both will push for compensation as a second option. Any payout would likely need to be funded by the SPFL clubs, for chief executive Neil Doncaster has admitted the league do not hold large cash reserves.

A joint statement from both clubs read: “Heart of Midlothian Football Club and Partick Thistle Football Club have today lodged a petition with the Court of Session to challenge the unfair and unjust decision of the SPFL to enforce relegations, to the extreme detriment of those clubs affected.

“Unfortunately, Scottish football has been unable to pull together at this time of national crisis to prevent the need for this legal challenge. We desperately hoped Court action would not be necessary, but we were left with no other option.

“For clarity, our petition does not seek to set aside or unravel the fee payments made to clubs, nor indeed the declaration of Champions, or the nomination of clubs who will participate in European competition.

“Instead, the petition primarily seeks to reduce the unfair resolution insofar as it changed the SPFL’s rules on promotion and relegation. If that remedy is not granted by the Court, we seek, in the alternative, awards of compensation relative to the significant financial loss which the unfair relegations will visit upon us.

“As matters stand, we have not asked the Court to grant an interim interdict which would prevent next Season commencing on 1 August. However, we have to reserve our right to do so in the event that becomes necessary.

“We would emphasise instead that we have no wish to disrupt Scottish football but rather our aim is to have the proceedings litigated to a conclusion as quickly as possible. In that regard, the Court has today granted our motion to reduce the normal period within which the SPFL must answer our petition, to seven days.

“No further comment will be made by either Club at this time.”

An SPFL spokesman said: “Our solicitors have this evening received a petition from Heart of Midlothian PLC and The Partick Thistle Football Club Limited.

“We are studying this carefully, along with our legal advisers, and it is not therefore appropriate to comment further at this time.”

A message from the Editor: Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you. In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news on this free-to-read site, I am asking you to also please purchase a copy of our newspaper. Our journalists are highly-trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the most rigorous standards in the world. But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. So we need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers during this crisis. With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers - and consequently the advertising that we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news and information by buying a copy of our newspaper. Thank you. Joy Yates, Editorial Director.