Hearts boss Daniel Stendel pleads for season to go on despite virus

Daniel Stendel has pleaded with Scottish football authorities to ensure the season finishes as scheduled amid discussions about the appropriate response to the Coronavirus crisis.

The Hearts manager does have to declare an interest since his side occupy bottom place in the Premiership. They canimprove that tomorrow night when they travel to St Mirren – three points above them in 11th place.

Stendel,right, pondered the options for the SFA and SPFL and dismissed the idea of cutting the campaign short – with positions at the time determining such issues as titles and relegation. He was even more strident when rejecting the suggestion games could be played behind closed doors. He said: “That’s the worst case,” he said. “But it’s not my decision. We all love the atmosphere in Tynecastle – and in every stadium. This is the reason why we play this game. I hope it will not happen.

“I concentrate entirely on the football, the work with the team,” he added. “Other things, I cannot influence.”

Football in Germany, Stendel’s homeland, has already been affected. Borussia Dortmund’s Champions League away clash with Paris St Germain tomorrow night will be played behind closed doors with the German side defending a 2-1 lead.

Like his compatriot, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp, who stressed such matters needed to be left to health experts, Stendel said he was “not a virologist”. But he stressed his fervent hope that the league season is permitted to run its course on the grounds that this is the accepted format. Any other course of action would fly in the face of the “spirit” of the competition.

“I think, even after everything that has happened with the Coronavirus, the competition is 38 games,” he said.

“You cannot say after however many games that you just stop the league. I think it’s not really the rule, the spirit.

I have my opinion. But it’s too difficult to express it fully in English at the moment.

“Today was the start of talking about that in Germany, for the first time. I don’t know the future. I’m very similar to Jurgen Klopp, I have no idea, I’m not a virologist.”

He revealed he had already held talks with Ann Budge, the Hearts owner, about the situation but “nothing concrete” was decided regarding what should be the club’s approach to a rapidly developing situation.