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SPFL claim Rangers chairman Douglas Park made 'threat' to Neil Doncaster
The league body has released a letter in response to the document released from Ibrox on Thursday.
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SPFL claim Rangers chairman Douglas Park made 'threat' to Neil Doncaster
The league body has released a letter in response to the document released from Ibrox on Thursday.
The SPFL have claimed Rangers chairman Douglas Park made a "threat" to league chief-executive Neil Doncaster.
The league body have written a letter to Scotland's 42 clubs in which eight out of nine board members have now opposed the Ibrox side's EGM resolution.
The letter also alludes to "gross breaches in confidentiality" relating to the widespread circulation of Rangers' document on Thursday, insisting it contained private information.
All 42 senior sides will head for the ballot box on Tuesday to deliver a verdict on whether the league's governing body must face an independent investigation into the handling of the season-ending vote.
But in a series of detailed responses to Rangers' dossier, the SPFL have made an allegation against Ibrox chief Park relating to events on April 10.
They claim Park made a defamatory remark aimed at Doncaster, which was the trigger for the four cease and desist requests sent to Rangers by SPFL legal advisor Rod McKenzie, as outlined in the dossier.
The SPFL said: "In a phone call on the evening of 10 April, Rangers chairman Douglas Park made a very serious allegation and threat to act in a particular way to the SPFL chief executive. This allegation has been entirely unsupported by any evidence, either then or since.
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"The allegation was so serious and defamatory that the league’s legal counsel, Rod McKenzie immediately sought a commitment from the Rangers company secretary that it would not be repeated.
"This was a wholly appropriate and proportionate legal response to an entirely unfounded and damaging allegation. That was the only respect in which Rangers was called upon not to repeat what had been alleged and what had been threatened. On no conceivable basis could this be considered as ‘bullying Rangers into silence’.
"It is noteworthy that there is not a shred of evidence in the so-called dossier to support the allegation made or to justify the threat."
Ibrox managing director Stewart Robertson has urged clubs to "stand up and be counted" next week but now the SPFL have issued a counter-plea.
All board members except Robertson have now made their opposition to the EGM resolution official in the letter published on Friday.
The letter reads: "Dear colleagues. In recent days, Rangers' managing director Stewart Robertson has launched a series of attacks on the SPFL board, its corporate governance and its office-bearers.
(Image: Daily Record)
"As board members, it is our duty to respond to these allegations on behalf of Scottish football and we are united in firmly rejecting his false characterisation of SPFL governance.
"We are all professional people, with many decades of business experience between us and we take our duties as your representatives extremely seriously, including holding the executive to account and acting in the wider interests of the 42 clubs at all times.
"These duties are often complex, often demanding, but they are a privilege and we fulfill them with great care and responsibility on your behalf.
"It is therefore enormously frustrating to see one of our number launch baseless, damaging and self-serving attacks on the board.
"Every one of us has sat alongside Stewart Robertson and been privy to the information and procedures of the SPFL board. If anything had been untoward, we would have addressed it at the time.
"It’s in that context that we have examined his dossier carefully and have given responses below to some of his more prominent claims.
"In answering them, one key question comes to the fore: Having served on the board for season 2017/18 and again since July 2019, if he actually believed these serious, wide-ranging and numerous claims, why has it taken him until now, just five days before Rangers’ resolution comes before the EGM, to make them public?
"Surely if things were so bad, so dysfunctional, he had a clear and compelling duty to speak out before now?
"That EGM has been called to consider a resolution put forward by Hearts, Rangers and Stranraer, which calls for an open-ended investigation to be carried out by a senior QC into a variety of matters related to the directors written resolution, recently approved by over 80 per cent of clubs.
"As everyone now knows, Rangers have made several false allegations about corruption, coercion and bullying on the part of the SPFL. They have also called, without good reason, for the suspension of the SPFL ’s chief executive and legal counsel.
"On 7 May we received a document from Rangers, which they claim – and we categorically reject – provides evidence to back up these attacks on the executive and the wider board.
"Given the very tight timescale before the EGM, we have had to provide a brief initial response to their claims.
"We trust the answers below will help inform you and your club on these matters, which we consider to be an unwelcome and self-serving distraction from the critical issues at stake – namely the future of Scottish football.
"If you should have any questions on any of the issues below, as board members and your representatives, we are very keen to hear from you.
"Several of us have also been asked by a number of clubs what action the SPFL intends to take in relation to the gross breaches of confidentiality that have been committed by the circulation of the Rangers document, including copying and publishing commercially sensitive information from the SPFL’s confidential board report server.
"It is not appropriate, in advance of the EGM, to comment further, but we will return to this important issue in due course.
"The vast majority of the SPFL Board members continue to have complete confidence in our chief executive and legal counsel.
"Eight of the nine members of your board of directors continue to believe the demand for an open-ended, hugely time consuming and expensive investigation to be wholly unnecessary, inappropriate and contrary to the interests of the company and Scottish football at what is such a critical time for every club’s survival.
"We therefore urge you to vote against the resolution at our EGM on Tuesday.
"It is vital that we devote our time and attention to working together, tackling the existential problems that Scottish football faces as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. Only by doing so can we protect our 42 clubs, the dedicated people they employ and the game we all love.
"Yours sincerely, Murdoch MacLennan, chairman, Karyn McCluskey, independent non-executive director, Alan Burrows, Motherwell FC, Ewen Cameron, Alloa Athletic FC, Peter Davidson, Montrose FC, Ken Ferguson, Brechin City FC, Les Gray, Hamilton Academical FC, Ross McArthur, Dunfermline Athletic FC."
