craigkillie

That's my point. The competition works fine as it is - some more competitive pre-season games for the other clubs, including guaranteed fixtures against "bigger" opposition for the lower league sides, and then the Euro representatives join at exactly the same stage that they've joined at for 20+ years.

It's certainly no less fair than just sticking a pin in the season at some random moment. Hearts are absolutely shite, and will finish bottom regardless, of that I have no doubt.

Hearts completely overhauled their squad in January and were still shite.

You'd still need to start the season a week earlier to squeeze that in.

It has been suggested that FIFA might act to help the contract situation. If the transfer window isn't open then players can't move anyway.

There are two midweek rounds for the League Cup, the only way to "work the fixtures around it" is to start the season a fortnight earlier, which is basically going into June.

They can pay out what they have, but they might not have all of the money for the reasons I mentioned. What I am suggesting is fairly straightforward - you decouple the prize money from the final standings and instead base it on the current standings, without that guaranteeing that the season is actually finished. It gives the clubs the income they need, without having to rush the decision on ending the season. In other words, if the money is the only reason that clubs need a rushed decision, then just make a decision on the money and nothing else. Of course, if the broadcasters/sponsors are withholding some money due to the season not yet being finished, then if we finish the season later on then that money could then be paid out based on the actual final positions as an extra bonus. It's not "irrespective of broadcasters (or sponsors)". Where do you think the prize money from the competition comes from? We have at least another 4 months to get 8-10 games played, based on UEFA's recent suggestions, so they definitely don't need to do anything for the next while.

But you can't play in both the League Cup group stages and in Europe - the two things are literally taking place at the same time.

To be fair, I don't think it's because it's Hearts, you could replace any club name in there and the sentence would still hold. Any club relegated (or missing out on promotion) as a result of the season not being completed will have every right to hold a grievance. But both the writing of the article and the opinions of Smith are shite, yes.

They could easily choose to pay out on current positions, but that doesn't have to be tied in to actually declaring those positions as final. However, it's not clear that all the money will be there - the prize money comes in chunks from sponsors and broadcasters, and they will quite rightly not be paying for games that haven't gone ahead. The same goes for the Challenge Cup final. Tunnocks and the various broadcasters probably haven't paid their full amount of money given that the final hasn't actually taken place. Likewise, the cut from the gate money obviously can't be forthcoming since they don't have it.

I'm sure this boy is a full-on alt-right racist, he was probably actually hoping for the army in the streets shooting all the "ethnics and leftards".

How would the SPFL making a decision on this season help stop those clubs from going to the wall? If it's about prize money, then that can be distributed without having to make a call on the season, and it's not clear how much of that prize money will still be available given that broadcasters and sponsors may well not make further payments given that there are no games being broadcast. Clubs are going to be in the same boat regardless - they won't know when the next games are going to be played so it would be hard to make contract offers anyway.

Why would rushing to make a wrong decision be better than waiting to make the right one?

Right, so you constantly claiming it was going to be "nil and void" was in fact a lot of shite?

Null and void was never an option at any stage - literally every single person involved with the game has been clear about that from day one.