Given the mess Scottish football and the SPFL finds itself in, an independent inquiry into what has happened in the last few weeks should take place.
The SPFL’s resolution to end the Championship, League One and League Two seasons eventually passed last week.
But the whole affair has been handled poorly by the league body and an increasing number of people are calling for a review.
For everyone that is interested in Scottish football and for the benefit of the SPFL it makes sense to have an independent inquiry.
If a review of the process is only conducted internally then there will always be suspicions.
I would hope within the SPFL they will review this whole affair and the mess they’ve found themselves in.
But for the benefit of football in this country and transparency then I do believe an independent inquiry would be the right way to go.
More details emerged of what went on in the build-up to the initial deadline for voting on the SPFL’s resolution.
Aberdeen chairman Dave Cormack said they were in a position where they were undecided about whether to vote for the motion or against.
Given what has been said it seems like the Dons’ vote ended up not really counting because nine teams had already voted for it.
A lot has been made about the revelation that Neil Doncaster phoned Cormack and said that the Reds’ vote wasn’t required shortly before the deadline.
Despite that, Aberdeen did vote for the resolution and a lot has been made of these phone calls, perhaps unnecessarily.
A lot of these phone calls go on before votes such as this – I’m not suggesting and I don’t believe that Doncaster was trying to influence the Aberdeen vote. Cormack had been in touch with him in an attempt to get assurances that the Premiership clubs would be consulted before a decision is made on ending the top flight campaign.
It’s very much a two-way street. Aberdeen had been in touch with the executive of the SPFL and then the executive in the form of Doncaster was in touch with Aberdeen.
There’s no doubt these conversations go on and there’s talk between clubs and the SPFL in these circumstances.
A lot goes back to the Dundee vote and how that was handled by the SPFL.
As a result of what happened with that everyone is looking for conspiracy theories and underhand dealings when in reality they probably don’t exist.
Realistically it has been incompetence from the SPFL in the way they’ve handled it – they haven’t been underhand.
There have been complaints about the executive of the SPFL getting a hard time.
But as a player if you play badly and the team has had a poor result then you expect criticism.
And for the SPFL this is the equivalent. They’ve handled things badly and there was always going to be criticism and to not expect some flak is wrong. Despite that I don’t feel in any way that the conversation between Cormack and Doncaster was anything more than the Aberdeen chairman trying to get some reassurance about the Premiership decision if the Dons voted for the resolution.
That was my reading of the situation – I don’t think Doncaster was trying to do something underhand or to coerce Aberdeen into voting a certain way. If he did say what he said then it was probably not the best thing to say.
But ultimately if by that stage nine Premiership votes in favour had been cast then Aberdeen’s vote didn’t matter. I don’t believe it was a cloak and dagger phone call. It was a phone call for clarity about the Premiership season.
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