Hearts owner fears no more Scottish football ‘this year’

GLASGOW: Hearts owner Ann Budge questioned on Sunday whether Scottish football can “resume any time this year” even while talks continue over salvaging the country’s top-flight Premiership season from the coronavirus pandemic.

Budge, who has warned her players to accept temporary wage cuts or receive nothing at all, told Scotland on Sunday: “I don’t think any of us genuinely believe we are going to be playing football, especially in front of normal crowds, any time this year so deferring wages is simply pushing the problem further down the line.”

With all major sport in Britain brought to a standstill by the virus, there is a growing realisation that any initial resumption of fixtures will likely have to be behind closed doors.

Leann Dempster, the chief executive of Hearts’ Edinburgh rivals Hibernian, remains “more hopeful” of finishing the current Scottish Premiership season and suggested the final eight rounds could be played in August.

Scottish football’s lower league campaigns for 2019/20 have already been ended and Budge is now also the co-chair of a task force on league reconstruction.

Meanwhile Rangers are calling for a general meeting of the Scottish Professional Football League in a bid to force an independent inquiry into the vote that ended the lower league season — a decision that could have a knock-on effect for the Premiership as well.