The Scottish Professional Football League is facing a call to declare the current campaign null and void in the wake of the coronavirus crisis.
The PA news agency understands that at least one top-flight club is ready to demand league chief Neil Doncaster scraps the season if it cannot be completed.
A source told PA: “There is no good answer. We don’t see how titles, promotion or relegation can be agreed on any basis of sporting fairness.
“Perhaps prize money can be split on the basis of the current table.
“But the league should be ruled void and we start next season as we commenced this one.
NEWS | The Joint Response Group can confirm the decision of the Scottish FA Board to suspend ALL domestic professional and grassroots football under the jurisdiction of the Scottish FA until further notice.https://t.co/xGeafo2rE0— Scottish FA (@ScottishFA) March 13, 2020
“Making the season void is the best of a bunch of bad choices.”
It has already been reported that the SPFL has no plans to void the 2019/20 season.
UEFA is expected to offer advice to Europe’s 55 member nations on how to react to the spread of the disease via a conference call on Tuesday.
Celtic currently top the Ladbrokes Premiership table by 13 points and Parkhead boss Neil Lennon has already suggested his team should be declared champions for the ninth year running if the pandemic forces an end to this term’s fixtures.
Speaking on Friday, the Hoops manager said: “If you are talking about the Armageddon of the league being cancelled or stopped, it should go on the average points total which would make us clear champions and rightly so.
“We are over 30 games into the season, they are not going to take that away from us.”
Hearts sit bottom and fear being relegated without another ball being kicked if the league season is ended prematurely.
Jambos manager Daniel Stendel has already urged Hampden chiefs to come up with a fair solution.
“We do not know what will happen next,” he said after the Scottish football shutdown was announced on Friday. “I’m sure that the clubs will be speaking to the league and a sensible decision will be made.
“I have said before that I think the league should be played to a finish and I believe that is the fair thing to do.
🗣 Club captain Steven Naismith reacts to today's postponement of all domestic football in Scotland, in a free to view interview.— Heart of Midlothian FC (@JamTarts) March 13, 2020
“However, I do not know if this can happen so we need a solution that is fair to everyone and I am sure that this is what the league will do.”
In the Championship, Dundee United are runaway leaders but bottom club Partick Thistle are only two points behind nearest rivals Queen of the South with a game in hand.
Jags chief executive Gerry Britton has backed plans that would see the season curtailed – but with relegation scrapped across Scotland’s four senior divisions for one season only. United and second-placed Inverness would then be promoted to form a one-off top flight of 14 teams once league action is allowed to resume.
“It’s hard not to be self-interested,” he told BBC Radio Scotland’s Sportsound programme. “The one proposal I’ve heard doing the rounds about the top two teams (from the Championship) getting promoted and there being no relegation through the divisions, with Brora Rangers and Kelty Hearts coming up (from the Highand and Lowland Leagues) for a bit of league reconstruction. That works for me.
“We’ve spoken for years about how we can improve the game, so if we did have an experiment for a year putting the top flight up to 14 teams, we might find it works.”
