Hearts chief issues final day Celtic clash complaint and calls for 'transparency'
Hearts chief Calum Paterson has aired his concerns over the scheduling of last season's final day clash with Celtic. The Bhoys famously came from behind to defeat Hearts at Parkhead to complete their title comeback and win top prize.
Plenty has been said since, and Paterson's comments are not the first time that the scheduling issue has been brought up. Paterson feels as though Hearts should have been at home on the final day, which is usually the case for the table-topping club at the time of the split.
In an address to fans on the club website, Paterson said: "The final week was difficult on a number of fronts. Among other things we were disappointed by the unprecedented decision that as the team leading the league at the time of the split had to play our final game away from home.
"The circumstances at the end of that game were, from our perspective, completely unacceptable. We took advice and made our concerns very clear to the football authorities. Standing back from it all we'd like to see greater transparency and consistency around key decisions in Scottish football.
"Standards and processes matter, particularly at important points in the season and there's room for improvement.
"I understand the frustration about how little supporters heard from us afterwards, there was and remains a live police investigation into actions against the players and that limited what we could say publicly. Even with those constraints I think we could've communicated more clearly. We had to think about what was best for Hearts, with the new management team coming in, a new season to prepare for, we felt the right thing was to draw a line and move forward.
"The supporters should know that we did everything we could to stand up for Hearts and we haven't forgotten what happened last season. Our focus now has to be on putting Hearts in the best position for this season and beyond and communicating better along the way."
At the time the fixtures were confirmed, the Scottish Premiership chiefs explained that Celtic playing home was due to a number of conflicts that could not be satisfied any other way, namely with the Bhoys needing to play three home games while needing to play one game away and one game at home within the last two games, which applies to everyone.
Hearts had just two home games to play, and that put the schedule-makers in a difficult position. Whether the fixtures should be managed differently over the course of the season is another question, and one the league will likely look to learn from.
Still, you can't blame Hearts for asking those questions when they are the first to fall victim to it.
