The date the SPFL could confirm Hearts' demotion as Uefa set season-ending deadline

The SPFL could be in a position to terminate the Premiership season by the end of May

Uefa want to know the SPFL's season-ending plans by May 25. Picture: SNS

The SPFL could be in a position to demote Hearts from the Scottish Premiership, simultaneously crowning Celtic champions, at the end of May.

Uefa have given league associations around Europe a deadline for their plans on concluding the current season.

The governing body want to know how the SPFL plan to complete the Scottish Premiership campaign by May 25, with the Executive Meeting two days later to discuss how feasible it is to finish the Champions League and Europa League in August.

It could lead to the SPFL being able to terminate the top-flight before June if they can convince Uefa they are unable to play out the remainder of the current season.

Earlier this month, the organisation’s resolution to finish the Championship, League One and League Two passed with 81 per cent of the 42 member clubs voting in favour.

Uefa announced last week that their “strong recommendation” is for leagues to finish on “sporting merit”, even if it involves a different format.

Yet, it did concede that some countries may have “legitimate reasons to prematurely terminate” the 2019/2020 campaign. One reason would be an “official order prohibiting sports events”.

A Uefa statement said: "National associations and/or leagues should be in a position to communicate to UEFA by May 25, 2020, the planned restart of their domestic competitions — including the date of restart and the competition format."

Currently, players in Scotland are unable to return to training until June 10 as per advice from the Scottish Government.

While English football explores way in which to finish the season it is expected that the SPFL’s preference is to terminate the Premiership season which would see Celtic crowned champions and Hearts demoted, prior to any league reconstruction taking place.