Inverness savage the SPFL for handling of resolution
Highland club label chiefs ‘disingenuous and incompetent’
INVERNESS Caledonian Thistle have branded the SPFL’s handling of the resolution on the end of the seasons as “disingenuous and incompetent” and vowed to provide evidence of “bullying” by a board member if clubs vote for an independent investigation at an EGM tomorrow.
Caledonian Thistle have been denied the chance to win promotion to the Ladbrokes Premiership after six top-flight clubs revealed they would vote against league reconstruction at a meeting on Friday afternoon.
In an incendiary statement posted on their official website yesterday afternoon and signed by their chairman Ross Morrison and chief executive Scot Gardiner, the Highland outfit savaged the SPFL.
They dismissed the description by SPFL chief executive Neil Doncaster of exchanges that took place between Championship clubs as “robust” and pledged to give details of “threats” made by Ross McArthur of Dunfermline if an external review gets the go-ahead.
The Inverness officials have described the governing body’s management style as “arrogant and aggressive” and lambasted the decision to relegate Partick Thistle and Stranraer but keep Brechin City, whose chairman Ken Ferguson is on the SPFL board, in the senior set-up.
The statement read: “Friday’s announcement on the collapse of the reconstruction talks was in our eyes as inevitable as it was depressing.
“We have been in close contact with key members of the inordinately large ‘task force’ since its inception. The incredible numbers coopted onto the group at the outset was one of the reasons why we believed, perhaps understandably cynically, that it was being set up to fail from the very beginning and nothing we heard from our colleagues did anything to really dilute that opinion.
“When people you respect openly state shortly after the process started that they believe they are wasting their time and predict what they think will happen and ultimately did happen, it was hard not to share their disillusion.
“It was in our opinion, entirely consistent with the disingenuous, incompetent shambles that began on Wednesday, April 8, and we concur with the view of other clubs that not for the first time during this process, the breaking of the news prior to it being formally made known to those who would be damaged the most was a disgrace.
“Without going into the specifics at this time, please know that we will testify to the bullying and threats made against our club on Friday 10th by an SPFL board member and the threats against others by the same SPFL board member and how these threats were ‘reported back to the centre’ and to the SPFL CEO directly on the day with evidence at any genuine independent investigation with the proper and appropriate scope, should there be one, or at any further
We find these forced demotions abhorrent and utterly beyond our board’s belief
subsequent action thereafter. These were threats and not robust conversations.”
The statement continued: “Appallingly, the SPFL chairman and the SPFL CEO have also used their office to attack SPFL member clubs who did not agree with arguably the most important resolution in the history of the SPFL and its utterly botched aftermath and they have deliberately and shockingly chosen to do so in public. And in what looked suspiciously like a co-ordinated attack, all the while calling for unity and solidarity.
“It is also bemusing to hear them so publicly state they are unaware of any threats or bullying during the period of the 9th or 10th April when the CEO knows what happened as it was reported to him. They continue to accuse anyone who spoke out against this take it or leave it offer as having an agenda which should be questioned.
“We fully admit to having an agenda, that is that no fellow member of the SPFL should be more financially damaged than we all already have been since the complete shutdown of our industry. We believed that no club should have been relegated or expelled during an unfinished season.
“We were not prepared to vote for that, even though we would have received the second highest amount of fees in the entire 30 club payout. We could not do it.
“It was, in our opinion, a wretched resolution with wretched consequences, but given the circumstances and manner it was presented in, we can totally understand why so many clubs voted for it. Very many had no choice because of the desperate need for finance and openly said so.
“It is stating the obvious when we say that the pandemic was not the fault of the SPFL board and leadership, but what happened next most certainly was. To criticise member clubs who they are employed to represent equally and who had the outlined agenda above would again seem to raise serious questions about the agenda of those criticising us.
“We now know that a number of Premiership clubs have put an end to that opportunity and that was their prerogative although this decision will now cost Hearts, Thistle and Stranraer huge additional financial damage. We find these forced demotions abhorrent and utterly beyond our board’s belief in fairness and sporting integrity.
“Tuesday will bring forward the next stage of this process when all 42 clubs will vote again, this time on a straight forward resolution re an independent investigation with perhaps the last opportunity to discover how and why things went so badly wrong from the beginning and who was responsible. But please be assured that ICTFC will move forward regardless of how that vote goes. One thing is certain, with regards to the governance and leadership of the SPFL, we all deserve better.”