Robertson says clubs must push for SPFL reform

RANGERS managing director Stewart Robertson has renewed his criticism of how the SPFL is governed and called for other clubs to stand up and be counted in a push for change.

Robertson made it clear the Ibrox outfit have not given up on their desire to see an overhaul of the league hierarchy — seven months after failing to secure an independent investigation into the handling of a vote to curtail the 2019/20 season.

Rangers had previously called for the suspension of SPFL chief executive Neil Doncaster and legal advisor Rod McKenzie during weeks of ill-feeling, much of which centred on t he controversy surrounding Dundee’s decisive vote.

Robertson (pictured) claimed the events of last summer still left a ‘sour taste’. Celtic were eventually confirmed as champions on a points- per- game basis having been 13 clear of Rangers when football was shut down in March by the Covid-19 pandemic.

While Steven Gerrard’s side have turned things around on the pitch this season, Robertson told the Rangers AGM that SPFL reform remained a priority within Ibrox.

‘I think we were all disappointed with the way the 2019/20 season was curtailed early,’ he said. ‘The fashion that it happened in left a really sour taste in the mouth, to be honest.

‘It’s been well publicised what our views on that were. We as a club were keen to get the games played. We’d have much rather got the games played to a conclusion as they did in England and most other European countries.

‘However, that path was never really made available to us. I feel some clubs accepted that path a bit too quickly and if we’d tried a bit harder, maybe we’d have got there.

‘We didn’t and eventually there came a point when it was obvious we weren’t going to get there.

‘However, that doesn’t detract that I believe, and the club believes, that the governance of the game in Scotland has to be better than what we’re getting at the moment, has to be better than we got in the summer. We all want to be displaying the best product we possibly can and showing Scottish football in its best light and I don’t think we’re doing that right now. ‘There’s a lot of improvements that could be made on that side of it. ‘It needs to start with the way the authorities govern the game. We were very vocal about it in the summer. We feel exactly the same now as we did then and we’re still chipping away at it. ‘We hear from many other clubs who express their dissatisfaction with the way things are being done but they need to believe in the courage of their convictions and actually come out and be a bit more vocal if they really want to see change. ‘Otherwise it’s going to be the same over and over.’