Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Nelms: I can see guy but over 80%
HE was quite happy to be the “bad guy” of Scottish fo ot ba l l if it mea nt get t i ng a mea n i ng f u l discussion around league recon st r uct ion – Joh n Nelms has lifted the lid on his side of the SPFL voting saga.
The Dundee managing director found himself the centre of attention at the start of April after being left with the deciding vote in a controversial league decision to end the lower league seasons.
Accusations flew from all quarters as the American took his time over the decision, waiting five days before changing his intended ‘no’ vote to a ‘yes’ to allow the resolution to pass.
With that, 2019/20 came to a close, prize money was dished out and Dundee United were crowned Championship winners.
Nelms, though, insists the Tangerines’ title hopes never entered his thought-process – reconstruction was his only concern.
He told the Tele: “Obviously as Dundee Football Club, we don’t want to hand our rivals anything but, at the end of the day, it was inevitable that was going to happen.
“I had several conversations with Mal (Brannigan, Dundee United managing director) throughout this, several conversations with Rangers, with Celtic, with Hearts – I’ve had conversations with quite a few people.
“You could tell early on that there would be promotion/ relegation and there was no way around it because over 80% of the clubs wanted that to happen. Whether or not we wanted that to happen, it was going to happen.
“I’m not going to make a decision based on what happens to United – I have to make the decision for what’s best for Dundee Football Club and what’s best for Scottish football.”
He added: “People think we have handed United the league, Rangers think we have handed Celtic the league, although that is in the hands of the board which they have a representative on.
“Over 80% voted for it and it was going to happen one way or the other – we represent three per cent of that vote, total.
“The only way going forward would be league reconstruction.
“Yeah, I can see why I am the bad guy but 81 or 82% of the league are also that same bad guy. The league did leave us, in putting it out there, in a bad position.”
Dundee were outed as the team who hadn’t voted in the Championship following a statement from the SPFL that showed one vital vote was missing.
A voting slip ticked ‘ no’ with Nelms’ signature appeared on social media before WhatsApp messages between Dens club secretary Eric Drysdale, Inverness CT and Partick – three clubs who had agreed to block the resolution by voting against.
On the publishing of the WhatsApp messages, Nelms said: “It’s unbelievable.