The SPFL have been given a legal warning from Belgium, after Waasland-Beveren's relegation was overturned.
Hearts and Partick Thistle will go to SFA arbitration after the early end to the season saw them relegated with games still to play.
With the season due to start on August 1 it could throw the Premiership into crisis, with Dundee United on the other of the arbitration process after winning promotion.
And the SPFL now face a worrying precedent after the Belgian Court of Arbitration for Sport overturned the decision to relegate Waasland-Beveren.
On May 15 the season was declared over based on the table as it stood, with Club Brugge declared champions.
But Beveren challenged that and the CBAS has now quashed the decision.
In another worrying echo for Neil Doncaster and Co, the Belgian fixture list had already been published.
Club spokesman Martijn De Jonghe said: "We never lost hope.
"We found it very odd that the fixtures were already released while legal proceedings were still under way.
"It's a small victory, even if we obviously don't know what's going to happen next."
While the Hearts and Thistle case will be arbitrated by the SFA, they do have the right to further appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne.
With relegation overturned in both France and Belgium, at least provisionally, CAS may use that precedent if called to make a ruling.
