SPFL DISMISS KING’S CLAIMS

THE SPFL insist Dave King has provided no evidence of an alleged conflict of interest for league chairman Murdoch MacLennan. An SPFL spokesman said MacLennan has ‘behaved impeccably’ throughout the process that saw him appointed non-executive chairman of Independent News and Media PLC (INM) earlier this year. Major Celtic shareholder Dermot Desmond and Denis O’Brien, who owns a smaller shareholding in the Parkhead club, both have stakes in INM. King has issued two statements calling for MacLennan’s suspension pending an independent investigation — and questioned the extent of the information given to the SPFL board about the INM appointment. The SPFL have countered for a second time, a spokesman saying: ‘Rather than try to communicate through the media, it is far more appropriate any substantive issues are presented to the SPFL Board for careful and detailed consideration, based on a sound legal analysis of the facts. ‘To date, there has been no such representations to the SPFL Board and it notes Mr King’s statement of May 30. ‘In its statement of May 29, Rangers FC claimed “a business relationship” existed between the SPFL chairman and minority shareholders in a SPFL club, despite no evidence of such a relationship being presented. There is no mention of the previously claimed “business relationship”. ‘In the May 30 statement the central allegation has now become that “there was non-disclosure of the conflict that immediately arose when the SPFL chairman accepted” his appointment as a non-executive director of International News & Media PLC. ‘Within the space of 24 hours two different and very public allegations have been made against the SPFL chairman without, in either case, an approach first being made to the SPFL with concerns or seeking clarification.’