Partick Thistle have performed a legal action u-turn after receiving money from an anonymous donor to fight against their relegation from the Scottish Championship to League One.
A prior statement on Monday had indicated they would not be pursuing any further claims following a dramatic reconstruction vote.
However, the Glasgow side will now be coupling up with Hearts to take on the league body in a joint legal challenge, they confirmed in a statement on their official website earlier on Tuesday.
Chairman Jacqui Low said: “Yesterday, we said that court action was our preferred route to challenging our relegation to League 1. It was only a lack of funding that stopped us. At that time, we reserved the right to change our position should circumstances change.
“Last night, in response to our statement, we received a proposal to fully fund legal action should we wish to pursue it, at no cost to Thistle. After careful Board consideration, we have now accepted this extremely generous offer of unexpected help.
“Today, following discussions with Hearts, we have agreed that we will launch a joint legal challenge to resolve what others have failed to do since April.
“To those who think we should just move on and accept what’s been dished out to us, yesterday 26 clubs put themselves first. Today, we have now been given the opportunity to do the same.”
The Edinburgh Evening News reported late last week that the compensation claim could be as much as £6m with the league body itself not having the cash reserves to pay out that kind of fee.
That means the legal battle could result in all other SPFL clubs, including Celtic, having to pay out their share of a significant sum to the pair.
Last month, SPFL chief executive Neil Doncaster said, as quoted by the paper: “Any action that’s taken by any member against the league ultimately is taken against members as a whole.
“We don’t hold reserves year to year, so any action that any one individual club takes, effectively the burden of that would fall on all the other members.”
It’s reported the mechanism of paying any compensation would be a deduction from next season’s prize pot, potentially leaving already financially beleaguered sides even more out of pocket.
It all comes after SPFL clubs voted resoundingly against a reconstruction model that would have prevented the relegation of Hearts, Partick Thistle and Stranraer after the early curtailment of SPFL matches due to the ongoing public health crisis.
Whether all this drama prevents the season starting in early August as planned is unknown but, optimistically, SPFL board member Les Gray has stated the league body is ‘ploughing on’ with plans to kick-off the 2020/21 campaign on the current timetable (BBC Scotland).
No doubt Celtic, like everyone else, will be keeping a close eye on what unfolds.
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