Dundee are unlikely to be spared relegation from Scottish football’s top tier even if Hearts are liquidated before the new league season kicks off on August 3 with last season’s First Division runners-up, Morton, set to mix it with the big boys for the first time since 1988.
At present the Edinburgh club have had a 15-point penalty automatically imposed for 2013-14 as a result of their descent into administration.
However, Bryan Jackson, of administrators BDO and a veteran of several previous footballing calamities, described Hearts’ plight as the worst he had encountered. That has set alarm bells ringing at the national stadium.
The board of the new Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) will be elected in Glasgow on Wednesday, and one of its first duties will be to draw up contingency plans should Hearts slide from administration into liquidation.
While there are four separate parties interested in taking charge of Hearts, much will depend on decisions taken in Lithuania, where soon-to-be-liquidated Ukio Bankas hold the floating charge over the club.
Hearts owe the Lithuanian bank £15 million and another £10m to UBIG, the Kaunas investment company that is also about to enter administration.
The hope is that both of those businesses, previously controlled by former Hearts owner Vladimir Romanov, can reach an agreement over suitable terms with one of the prospective new owners. Failure to do that is likely to see Hearts die and, like Rangers last summer, lose their membership of the new league body, with any Phoenix club needing to apply to begin life in the Third Division.
Dundee boss John Brown claimed the Tayside club has been cheated out of a place in the SPL by Hearts simply delaying the announcement of their insolvency so that the penalty would be applied next season rather than in the one that has just finished, with Dundee 14 points adrift of them.
However, well-placed Hampden sources insist it is unlikely the Dark Blues will take Hearts’ place if they go bust.
“Dunfermline made the same argument last summer, but the prevailing view at the time was that they had already been relegated on sporting merit,” said one insider.
“That has set a precedent, and although the SPFL is a new body and won’t be bound by that decision, they will use it as a guide.
“Everyone is still optimistic that Hearts can come through this with a company voluntary arrangement (CVA), but if the worst came to the worst,then it is likely that Morton would become Team 12 just as Dundee did last year when Rangers were liquidated.”
Even if they can come through a CVA then, depending on Hearts’ finances, the SPFL board may ask them to provide a six-figure bond, which would be returned once they had completed next season’s fixtures.