Former Celtic manager John Barnes has slammed the SPFL for the “ridiculous and unfair” decision to relegate Hearts by ending the Scottish Premiership season early.
The Jambos will ply their trade in the Championship unless a final bid for reconstruction from Ann Budge this week is successful.
And while Barnes’ former club were crowned champions for a ninth successive time as a result, the Liverpool legend was adamant Hearts should have been given the opportunity to play their way out of trouble.
“[Ending the SPFL early] is ridiculous,” he said. “It's unfair. There are eight games to go and Hearts are four points from safety, and they can come back up. I don't understand. With eight games to go, whenever they're going to play the next season then just finish the eight games and continue to the next season.
“I don't see why they have to make a decision now to stop the season because stopping the season now isn't going to make them play the next season any quicker. But next season will come whenever it comes.
“So, what I'm saying is that whenever that comes, just take six weeks off to play eight games, and then go straight into the next season.
“You won't need another pre-season; you won't need a rest because you've only played eight games and you already had three or four months off.
"If Hearts then get relegated, they deserve to get relegated, but to relegate someone like that when they're four points off safety is ridiculous. From what I’ve heard, there's going to be some lawsuits coming in now.”
The lack of match day action is set to take a financial toll on clubs across Scotland, with some lower league outfits want to go into cold storage until January to get punters through the doors for any restart.
But Barnes is looking at things from a sporting perspective first and foremost.
“It's a bit different in Scotland because I don't suppose if you look at the financial ramifications of being in the SPFL for a smaller club, for example, it isn't necessarily much greater if you come up from the Championship to the Premiership.
“It's not as if, if Raith Rovers don't come up, they're going to be saying ‘We've missed out on 20-30 million’, because England is slightly different. I'm not even talking about from a financial point of view - I'm talking about fair play and the integrity of competitions.
“The problem I have is a lot of people have criticised me because they're talking about,‘You want Liverpool to win the league,’ but I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about Crewe coming from League Two, Leeds and West Brom coming in from League One, and people getting relegated.
“A lot of people are voting and doing things because either it's,‘Okay, we're not concerned because we're not going to win the league, and we don't want to get relegated, so therefore, we're going to vote to say cancel the league,’ and then they’re saying it’s not.”
