Looks like the Scott Gardiner and Rangers plot has been rumbled. It was obvious from that first interview on Sportsound when Gardiner pushed the anti SPFL agenda then conveniently made his excuses to go just before the Rangers statement was dropped, this was an orchestrated campaign of disruption with null and void as the end goal.
Scottish football’s raging civil war has taken an explosive twist after a group of Championship clubs confirmed Inverness Caley Thistle attempted to ‘null and void’ the entire league season across all four divisions.
The Highlanders were caught up in the eye of a storm on Good Friday when they chose to vote against the SPFL’s controversial proposal to end the current campaign and declare the biggest winners and losers on a points per game ratio.
Chief executive Scot Gardiner later launched a furious attack on Dundee for flip-flopping on the crucial casting vote which would have sunk the emergency plan.
Now Record Sport has learned in the build-up to that vote Gardiner had informed other Championship clubs he had drawn up a counter proposal which he intended to table had the Dens Park stuck to their guns and brought the SPFL’s survival plan crashing down.
And we understand that plan would have seen the season null and voided, preventing relegation for Hearts, Partick Thistle and Stranraer while also potentially stopping Celtic, Dundee United, Raith Rovers and Cove Rangers from being crowned champions of their respective divisions.
One Championship club told us: “Scot’s proposal was to effectively null and void all four divisions. When you consider the catastrophic financial ramifications for all clubs it was hard for anyone to understand his motivation. Even now it’s still impossible to figure out what Inverness Caley Thistle thought they would gain from doing that.”
Details of Gardiner’s plan only emerged as a group of Championship clubs threw their weight behind a statement from Dunfermline chairman Ross McArthur - in which he mentions for the first time a proposal to have the Scottish season wiped from the record books.
On Sunday Gardiner accused McArthur – an SPFL board member – of attempting to bully him into backing the league’s emergency measures. Gardiner also declared he will be backing Rangers’ calls for an independent inquiry to be fronted up by a QC into the league’s governing body at Tuesday’s extraordinary general meeting of all 42 clubs.
But McArthur hit back when he released a statement of his own on Dunfermline’s official website, rejecting Gardiner’s claims and giving details of a counter proposal to null and void the league.
Record Sport has received confirmation from five other Championship clubs - Alloa, Arbroath, Ayr United, Morton and Queen of the South - that they ‘fully endorse and support’ McArthur’s version of events.
He said: “Since the SPFL director’s resolution was first issued, a number of clubs in the Championship would confirm it is the behaviour of Inverness that has continually been aggressive and confrontational.
“However, no one felt it necessary to win points in public, as robust conversations take place in the normal course of a competitive business like football.
“Turning to the 'allegation' regarding the information that was conveyed by me to Inverness FC, on Friday 10th April 2020.
“As confirmed by their own leaked WhatsApp message group, I clearly did so as Dunfermline Athletic FC chairman and NOT as an SPFL board member (as was expressly agreed and verified, before the call with other Championship clubs).
“It most certainly wasn’t a threat, simply a potential consequence of their action not to back the SPFL resolution currently put in front of them, in favour of a counter resolution which was being mooted at that time.
“This resolution would effectively have the same consequence as a 'null and void' conclusion to the league season, but the SPFL central distribution monies would still be provided to clubs on their current standing.”
It’s understood McArthur then explained to Gardiner that, as a consequence of null and void, prize money could not be distributed on the basis of league standings in a competition which never technically took place.
Dunfermline chairman Ross McArthur
Instead, all prize money would have to be split equally 10 ways among all Championship clubs.
And that would have seen ICT’s slice slashed from £475,000 for finishing in second place to a sum of just over £300,000.
McArthur’s statement concludes: “The communication to the chairman of Inverness, on Friday 10th April was that any vote in favour of an alternative resolution like this, should the existing one fail, may be entirely dependent on all clubs in the SPFL Championship obtaining an equal (“one tenth”) of the attributable distribution pot for the Championship.
“There are many more things I would like to say, but I will retain my dignity and continue to be more concerned about the long term future of Scottish football at this time.
“The endless point scoring is becoming tiresome, and I would have preferred to rise above it, but I have a duty to protect the reputation of Dunfermline Athletic FC.”
Let’s not beat about the bush here, this has been about one thing and one thing only - Sevco attempting to prevent the Tims from winning the League. Percy may come out with some moral high ground claptrap about not wanting to relegate Partick but that was all a sideshow and was irrelevant in the bigger picture simply making a convenient cover story for their ulterior Black Op.
I always felt this Null And Void nonsense was a very real danger to our promotion aspirations and we may have been very close to this but happily that ship has now very firmly sailed. Viva Neil Doncaster! Viva Murdoch MacLennan! And last, but by no means least, Viva John Nelms!
Fail to see just what ICT would have gained from their own plan and what the benefit would have been to anyone else bar the obvious Sevco stopping re Cellic and the relegated clubs. ICT would have lost £100,000. What was Percy up to? Was it all about backing Sevco and what do the ordinary ICT fans make of it?
Looks like they are having doubts about their stooge
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Amazes me when you get chunts like Percy, David Southern and Martin Bain for example who are all MASSIVE failures everywhere they go yet manage to hold down high ranking positions, how the f uck does incompetence gain reward? The normal working man would be sacked and not considered for any similar roles
Iain McMenemy of Stenhousemuir is voting for the motion.
You couldnt make it up