Hearts players to hold key meeting over Championship trophy lift

The Hearts first-team squad will meet after training on Friday to decide whether to accept or reject the Championship trophy.

The Hearts squad will meet on Friday to discuss if they will accept the Championship trophy.

Scottish Professional Football League officials are due to present the silverware to the title winners after Saturday’s league match with Inverness Caledonian Thistle at Tynecastle Park.

Many Hearts supporters want their team to leave the trophy on the stand to reinforce their disgust at how SPFL clubs voted to relegate them last year.

Players will air their views during a meeting at Riccarton after Friday’s training session and then make a final decision as a group.

Season 2019/20 was halted by the Covid 19 pandemic last March while Hearts still had eight Premiership games remaining. The Edinburgh club were controversially relegated from the top flight despite taking the matter to Edinburgh’s Court of Session.

They won Championship title and automatic promotion earlier this month and will now debate among themselves what to do when the trophy is offered to them this weekend.

“We’re going to have a meeting at training, have a big chat, get everyone’s opinions across, and then decide from there,” explained defender Craig Halkett.

“It’s about being respectful to the league and the teams in the league who were all challenging for the title all season.

“In our changing room there are boys who maybe haven’t got a winners’ medal or had the chance to lift a trophy. So there are a lot to things to be spoken about. We’ll discuss it in the meeting and take it from there.”

Hearts manager Robbie Neilson will also be involved in the discussions and is determined to take all view points into consideration. “I’ll give my thoughts on it as well to the players and make a decision about what will happen,” he said.

“It’s important we all make the decision together and carry it out. There’s two sides to the story and two different aspects we need to look at. We’ll make a decision on Friday.”

Hearts will still be without defender Stephen Kingsley and winger Jamie Walker against Inverness due to injuries. Josh Ginnelly will not feature again this season.

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