Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

League reconstruction talk a distraction from survival of clubs, says Elgin chairman Tatters

Elgin City chairman Graham Tatters.
Elgin City chairman Graham Tatters.

Elgin City chairman Graham Tatters feels discussions over league reconstruction are distracting from the most critical matter of ensuring the survival of Scottish clubs.

The 15-strong league reconstruction working group held a “positive and constructive” first meeting on Monday according to Hamilton chairman Les Gray, with the group reconvening again tomorrow.

Given the threat to the future of clubs through a lack of revenue during the coronavirus shutdown, and the possibility of social distancing limiting the capacity of grounds when football does return, Tatters feels the talk over reconfiguring the leagues is premature.

Tatters said: “I understand where everybody is coming from, I’ve got sympathy for them all.

“The bottom line is that we are trying to do something when we don’t know what the eventual outcome is from where we are at the moment.

“I don’t think we should be doing anything until we know which direction football is going to go, and how many clubs are going to survive this.

“We could be telling Brora and Kelty to come in, but we end up with two or three clubs going out of business – so why are we changing things?

“At the moment there is absolutely no stability at all.

“People are dying all over the place and we are talking about reconstruction of the league.

“I don’t know if every club in the leagues will survive – so reconstruction might take care of itself.”

The working group is being jointly chaired by Hearts owner Ann Budge, whose side stand to be relegated if the Premiership season is declared over.

Budge has already hinted at a temporary solution being implemented, which Tatters reckons would be impractical.

He added: “Everybody knows why we are doing it, and it’s nothing to do with anything else other than to get Hearts to survive.

“I have got no problem with that, because they could still have kept their place in the league.

“I understand totally where Ann Budge is coming from – I’ve got no problem at all with her trying to defend her corner.

“She has said it could be temporary. If they bring two teams in from non-league football, what’s going to happen if they go back, and they kick two teams back to the Lowland League and Highland League? That would go down well, wouldn’t it?”

Tatters stopped short of saying Elgin would oppose any league reconstruction proposal, adding: “You can’t just sit on your high horse and refuse to accept anything, because you’ve got an opinion on it.

“I’m not daft – but at this moment my board of directors at Elgin City don’t think it’s the time to be discussing league reconstruction until we have some stability and direction, and find out what’s going to happen with football itself.”