Ann Budge is continuing to play to the gallery over the Betfred Cup semi-final controversy.
The Hearts owner was apparently present at the SPFL meeting where it was decided that Hearts would meet Celtic at Hampden with the game kicking off at 7.45pm.
That announcement has been met by widespread criticism from supporters of three of the competing clubs with Budge quick to tap in to her supporters anger with a statement on the night of the fixture announcement.
Unless Hearts and Aberdeen had threatened to withdraw from the competition nothing would have been changed.
Arrangements for the two matches started on Friday, over the weekend long distance fans keen enough would have made travel arrangements, some would have booked up Sunday night accommodation.
In short the horse has bolted.
Hearts are a member of the SPFL, they know who made the decision but are continuing to bleat about the arrangements.
In today’s Edinburgh News Budge says: “We’ve been back and forth with suggestions but, in terms of the fixtures, everything we came up with was met with ‘that can’t be done because…’
“I know how hugely complex this all is but I think we almost have to forget some of the constraints and think out of the box. I will continue to press for an alternative. I will keep pushing.”
Having allowed the SPFL to award a new club the honours of a dead one, having taken a two point deduction for an honest mistake in the Betfred Cup while another club cheated on an industrial scale for a decade without any points deductions there is nothing that Budge and Hearts can do over a kick off time.
It might be creating a siege mentality or getting the excuses in early but whatever Budge has to say about the issue it’s not going to bring about any change.
