Partick Thistle won’t be taking legal action against the SPFL despite being relegated to League One yesterday.
Of all the clubs impacted by the decision of the SPFL board Thistle got the worst deal with Ian McCall’s side sitting bottom of The Championship just a point behind Queen of the South with a game less played.
On Tuesday Thistle announced that they believed that they had a strong legal case to challenge the vote carried out by the SPFL board with that view earning them the praise of fans from Ibrox.
Over the last 24 hours the clubs that were most vocal against the vote have been won over leaving Scot Gardiner and Inverness Caley Thistle as the only Ibrox sympathisers left.
Hearts jumped on board with the offer of a place on a committee to look at re-organisation, Falkirk reluctantly accepted the decision and nobody cares what Stranraer have to say after a committee man got 15 minutes of fame with Radio Scotland.
This afternoon Thistle stated:
We advised the SPFL on Tuesday of the joint counsel’s Opinion we had sought in relation to the validity – or not – of the Dundee FC vote cast last Friday. To be clear, we did not threaten litigation, we sought clarity on the legal points raised.
We still regard this as a strong legal Opinion that raises significant issues around the whole process of the vote and related matters. Having taken further legal advice, we have been advised that we have the option to take this before a court. Instinctively, injustice demands reparation.
However, as a Club, the decision to relegate Thistle is first and foremost about our people and what this might mean for them. To pursue court action costs money and considerable time – so we have had to consider carefully whether both could be better spent on securing the Club’s future and protecting the livelihoods of those we employ. In deciding what our next steps should be, that was our first priority.
Thistle has always lived in the real world so we also looked at the bigger picture of the life-changing pandemic we find ourselves in. The resulting lockdown is challenging the very existence of some clubs. If we were to take this action to court, there is a risk that might stop the release of much-needed monies to those clubs on Friday.
That’s a step too far for us. Regardless of what’s been inflicted on Thistle, we can’t be responsible for pushing even one club to the brink. It would be hypocritical of us to have espoused “do no harm” as a reason why we shouldn’t be relegated and then do exactly that.
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Despite the expectations of Ibrox fans there has been no furious statement from their club today as they wait on word that Celtic are the champions with just a cheque for second place as consolation.
