MORALITY over money.
It is no longer about the cash for David Beattie, instead it is a matter of doing the proper thing, right prevailing over wrong. At a time when he should be counting down to the start of the new Scottish Premier League campaign and Partick Thistle's return to the top flight, the Firhill chairman finds himself embroiled in a dispute that has become so unnecessarily complex.
As divorces go, the parting of Jackie McNamara and Thistle is turning out to be particularly messy. A handshake and good wishes from both parties should have been the last acts of McNamara's Maryhill tenure, but his move to Dundee United in February continues to generate a bitter aftertaste. Just weeks after agreeing a new contract at Firhill that increased his wages and the compensation Thistle would be due if he ever moved on, McNamara did just that. He left them second in the Irn-Bru First Division, with Alan Archibald finishing the job and lifting the title. Months after his departure, Thistle have still not received a penny from their former manager or his new employers.
Despite United chairman Stephen Thompson's intimation that a compensation payment would "not be problem", the only offers tabled would have left Thistle waiting months to receive the full amount due to them under the payment structure proposed by United. In a blizzard of offers, rejections and legal letters, Thistle still await payment as they defend their position and principles.
"They brought up the question of compensation and they told me it wasn't a problem," Beattie said. "I took that back to my board and then when they were interested in Jackie it became a payment plan. I was told that was the way football is done.
"Well, it's not the way Partick Thistle do it. We do a deal and a deal is a deal. It's not 'compensation's not a problem' and then it's a protracted payment plan." He added: "Business morality means a lot to us. Just because it is the norm in football, it is not something we are going to follow. Our morals are more important than £80k."
Thompson maintains staggered payments are custom and practice among football clubs and points to the example of his former striker David Goodwillie's transfer to Blackburn which was paid over a period of 11 months.
The Tannadice chairman said: "Our initial offer of £40,000 there and then and £40,000 by April 30 would have given Thistle the full amount of their clause within the 90 day period. They turned that down, though. The reality is in football I don't think I've ever been involved in a deal which wasn't structured in some way. The legal advice we have been given is that the clause is not enforceable. However, as a show of good faith, we did then offer £40,000 to settle it. They wanted £60,000 and despite a further offer to find middle ground, as you do in a negotiation, they have so far refused."
The problem has quickly spiralled out of control. Instead of a deal being struck between two chairmen, the matter is now in the hands of respective teams of lawyers, with the Scottish Football Association also in the frame. It is McNamara who owes Thistle the £80,000 that was stipulated in the contract he signed just weeks before his departure, but with no money received and dialogue failing to bring about an acceptable solution, matters have had to be taken further.
"We'll take all the legal steps open to us, either through the SFA or the courts," said Beattie. "This isn't about how much it is costing, this is about principle. This is about what we believe is right and wrong. And what is happening is, we believe, wrong. We'll take it all the way."
If the non-payment of what is due to them wasn't hard enough to stomach for a club that has conducted its business by the book, there was still another shock to come. On May 2, Thistle received a letter from McNamara's lawyers seeking a £40,000 bonus for their promotion to the SPL, a feat they achieved weeks after the 39-year-old's departure and only after Archibald had led his side on a remarkable run of form through a hectic fixture schedule.
Beattie said: "It's disrespectful to Archie and the management team at Partick Thistle that that claim has come in. Archie won the league for us. Jackie started it, Archie finished it. Is it muddying the waters? I don't know, you make your own judgment on that."
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