HIBERNIAN WELCOMES FINAL ROUND DECISION

Hibernian FC today welcomed the intervention of SPFL broadcast partner Sky in ensuring that the final round of Championship fixtures can be played in a way that supports sporting integrity.

The intervention means that the SPFL has now agreed that all of the final round fixtures will kick off at the same time – 12.15 pm – on Saturday May 2nd.

While the role of our broadcast partner is beyond reproach in the matter, Hibernian remain deeply concerned at what we consider to be the mishandling of the situation by the SPFL, the body who are supposed to be the guardians of the competition and its sporting integrity.

Conversely, the Club has been gratified by the many messages of support received from clubs throughout Scotland, from supporters of many Clubs and from the media on this issue. We would specifically like to thank Heart of Midlothian FC and Rangers FC for their public statements of support.

Hibernian FC believes a review of the governance of the SPFL is now urgently required to ensure our league competitions are run professionally and with appropriate respect for all member clubs. The way in which the SPFL has communicated with Clubs involved in this situation has been far from acceptable.

Hibernian is deeply concerned that the SPFL sought to abdicate its responsibility, choosing instead to shuffle the onus on to its individual member clubs, and in particular on to Hibernian.

Leeann Dempster, Chief Executive, said: “In my view our position was made crystal clear to the SPFL, despite attempts being made to suggest our Club had not responded to make its position known. In response to the SPFL’s passing of the buck, Hibernian sent a timely email which stated that with deeply meaningful games involved we believed the responsibility lay with the SPFL to do what was right to ensure that sporting integrity of the competition was unimpeachable, and pointed to the protocols around final round fixtures which have been followed for some time.

“The SPFL chose to ignore this clear view that the duty to ensure a level playing field lay with them, and not with any individual club or group of clubs. Instead, a second email arrived seeking clarification on whether we were requesting a change to play at the same time as Hearts and Rangers or not. If we did not make such a specific request, we were told, they would “assume” we were content with the arrangement as proposed. This was disappointing.

“In our view, instead of doing what was right they sought to place the onus on Clubs to achieve parity – utterly contrary to protocols they themselves confirmed had existed for many years and in stark contrast to their plans for the final round of fixtures in the Premiership.

“This was a ludicrous situation entirely of the SPFL’s making. For example, in our view if we had requested a switch to coincide with the Hearts v Rangers clash it could have seen Queen of the South disadvantaged. Sporting integrity is sporting integrity and must be applied equally to all Clubs – and that is surely the job of the SPFL.”