SPFL Open Letter

Forth Bear

Forth Bear

Well-Known Member
OPEN LETTER TO ALL SPFL CLUBS, THE MEDIA AND SUPPORTERS OF SCOTTISH CLUBS

You will all be aware of reports in the press, calling for an independent investigation and for the suspension of SPFL’s chief executive Neil Doncaster and SPFL’s legal counsel Rod McKenzie in relation to the resolution that enabled the payment of nearly £2 million to Championship, League One and League Two clubs. The focus of the questions raised in the press concerned the events of the evening of Friday 10 April, when Dundee FC attempted to return a voting slip to the SPFL in connection with the resolution.

In order to ensure complete probity and independence during this process, on Thursday 16 April, Deloitte LLP, a leading global provider of audit and assurance services, was appointed by the SPFL’s independent non-executive directors to carry out a comprehensive and independent investigation into the factual chronology relating to Dundee FC’s return. Deloitte has completed its forensic investigation and the findings confirm the following sequence of key events on 10 April 2020.

Sequence of key events on 10 April 2020.

1. An SPFL Board Meeting commenced at 17:00 on Friday 10 April 2020. At the start of the meeting 38 returns had been identified as received, and 1 further return was received during the meeting at 17:10, bringing the total number of returns to 39.
Ladbrokes Premier: 10 returns in favour, 1 against
Ladbrokes Championship: 7 returns in favour, 2 against
Ladbrokes Leagues One and Two: 16 returns in favour, 3 against

It was noted during the meeting that one vote remained outstanding from the Premiership,
one from the Championship, and one from Leagues One and Two.

2. The Board meeting concluded at around 17:15.

3. At 17:15, Neil Doncaster called Dundee FC Managing Director, John Nelms, and left a message asking whether Dundee FC intended to submit a return.

4. At 17:39, Neil Doncaster had a conversation with John Nelms and confirmed that as far as he knew, no vote had been returned from Dundee FC. John Nelms thought Dundee FC’s vote may have been returned, but would make enquiries.

5. At 17:50, Eric Drysdale (Dundee FC Club Secretary) spoke to Iain Blair (SPFL’s Company Secretary and Director of Operations) asking whether Dundee FC’s return had been received. Iain Blair confirmed that it had not.

6. At 18:00, a text was received by Iain Blair, from Eric Drysdale, intimating that the Dundee FC vote should not be considered as cast.

7. At around 20:30, Ian Blair accessed the SPFL’s email quarantine system (which is a feature of the email system operated by a separate third party) at the suggestion of Rod Mackenzie and identified an unread email from Eric Drysdale that had been sent at 16:48 on 10 April 2020. Iain Blair released the quarantined email and it appeared in his SPFL email inbox at 20:55. Prior to identifying the quarantined email at around 20:30, no one from the SPFL had seen the email from Eric Drysdale.

Deloitte’s examination of phone records, mobile communications (including texts) and email data has identified no evidence of improper behaviour by SPFL personnel concerning the submission of the Dundee FC vote.

I hope that Scottish football will now focus on the significant issues that face our game, otherwise many clubs may not survive this period.

We will have to be forward-thinking, and work collegiately to quickly present ideas and proposals to Scottish Government and others which will enable Scottish football to recover and progress.

Make no mistake, this is a critical time for all clubs, and we must concentrate on what is important to the future of our game.

Yours faithfully,
Karyn McCluskey
SPFL Independent Non-Executive Director

ENDS
 
Concentrating on one wee bit of the fiasco. You could not make it up. Rangers must act now or sweep, sweep, Doncaster etc will just bluster on unchallenged.
 
Seen this on the big thread, no doubt in my mind this has been timed to release as the lights get turned out for the weekend at Hampden, slimey b******s will have their mhedia lapdogs articles written for the weekend columns insisting it’s time to move on.

Time to go on the attack!
 
Insufficient time to look at the detail.
Counter proposal not given proper consideration, and reasons for it being declared incompetent were inconsistent.
Executive members bullying and coercing clubs.

Where's the investigation into that?

And that's before this published version confirming the no vote before 5pm and legal advice ut therefore counts.

Or the obvious suspicion that 1 vote out of 42 didn't arrive when it was the very one that would make the resolution fail.

Still stinks. Still need a proper transparent independent inquiry.
 
It looks like member clubs are being presented yet again of only one option to believe by the corrupt SPFL. They're just digging an even bigger hole for themselves with this farce posing as an " independent investigation. "
 
Am I making things up or did i initially see the name of the person appointed to carry out the investigation from Deloitte?
 
dh1963 said:
Insufficient time to look at the detail.
Counter proposal not given proper consideration, and reasons for it being declared incompetent were inconsistent.
Executive members bullying and coercing clubs.

Where's the investigation into that?

And that's before this published version confirming the no vote before 5pm and legal advice ut therefore counts.

Or the obvious suspicion that 1 vote out of 42 didn't arrive when it was the very one that would make the resolution fail.

Still stinks. Still need a proper transparent independent inquiry.
Click to expand...

Don’t forget their deceptive public releases which were both lies & economical with the truth besmirching Rangers FC, and our statements.
 
It is confirmation that nobody from the SPFL was involved inappropriately in Dundee voting NO
FFS the while point of this was why Dundee subsequently voted YES
Everyone knows the SPFL didn't want Dundee to vote NO so why would they have tried to influence a NO vote

It's all smoke & mirrors & is focussing on the SPFL's involvement in a NO vote instead of the SPFL's subsequent involvement in the YES vote
SHAMELESS
 
Forth Bear said:
OPEN LETTER TO ALL SPFL CLUBS, THE MEDIA AND SUPPORTERS OF SCOTTISH CLUBS

You will all be aware of reports in the press, calling for an independent investigation and for the suspension of SPFL’s chief executive Neil Doncaster and SPFL’s legal counsel Rod McKenzie in relation to the resolution that enabled the payment of nearly £2 million to Championship, League One and League Two clubs. The focus of the questions raised in the press concerned the events of the evening of Friday 10 April, when Dundee FC attempted to return a voting slip to the SPFL in connection with the resolution.

In order to ensure complete probity and independence during this process, on Thursday 16 April, Deloitte LLP, a leading global provider of audit and assurance services, was appointed by the SPFL’s independent non-executive directors to carry out a comprehensive and independent investigation into the factual chronology relating to Dundee FC’s return. Deloitte has completed its forensic investigation and the findings confirm the following sequence of key events on 10 April 2020.

Sequence of key events on 10 April 2020.

1. An SPFL Board Meeting commenced at 17:00 on Friday 10 April 2020. At the start of the meeting 38 returns had been identified as received, and 1 further return was received during the meeting at 17:10, bringing the total number of returns to 39.
Ladbrokes Premier: 10 returns in favour, 1 against
Ladbrokes Championship: 7 returns in favour, 2 against
Ladbrokes Leagues One and Two: 16 returns in favour, 3 against

It was noted during the meeting that one vote remained outstanding from the Premiership,
one from the Championship, and one from Leagues One and Two.

2. The Board meeting concluded at around 17:15.

3. At 17:15, Neil Doncaster called Dundee FC Managing Director, John Nelms, and left a message asking whether Dundee FC intended to submit a return.

4. At 17:39, Neil Doncaster had a conversation with John Nelms and confirmed that as far as he knew, no vote had been returned from Dundee FC. John Nelms thought Dundee FC’s vote may have been returned, but would make enquiries.

5. At 17:50, Eric Drysdale (Dundee FC Club Secretary) spoke to Iain Blair (SPFL’s Company Secretary and Director of Operations) asking whether Dundee FC’s return had been received. Iain Blair confirmed that it had not.

6. At 18:00, a text was received by Iain Blair, from Eric Drysdale, intimating that the Dundee FC vote should not be considered as cast.

7. At around 20:30, Ian Blair accessed the SPFL’s email quarantine system (which is a feature of the email system operated by a separate third party) at the suggestion of Rod Mackenzie and identified an unread email from Eric Drysdale that had been sent at 16:48 on 10 April 2020. Iain Blair released the quarantined email and it appeared in his SPFL email inbox at 20:55. Prior to identifying the quarantined email at around 20:30, no one from the SPFL had seen the email from Eric Drysdale.

Deloitte’s examination of phone records, mobile communications (including texts) and email data has identified no evidence of improper behaviour by SPFL personnel concerning the submission of the Dundee FC vote.

I hope that Scottish football will now focus on the significant issues that face our game, otherwise many clubs may not survive this period.

We will have to be forward-thinking, and work collegiately to quickly present ideas and proposals to Scottish Government and others which will enable Scottish football to recover and progress.

Make no mistake, this is a critical time for all clubs, and we must concentrate on what is important to the future of our game.

Yours faithfully,
Karyn McCluskey
SPFL Independent Non-Executive Director

ENDS
Click to expand...

That’s actually laughable. What was the scope of their enquiry?

It completely misses the point on what Dundee’s note actually was and why it was suddenly changed.

Also goes absolutely nowhere near the reason that the SPFL didn’t provide the correct information to the clubs at the start of the vote to influence the outcome.
 
Wheres the timeline and content of the telephone calls made to various spfl chairmen ? Some of whom have admitted it on live radio ?
Thats where the fckn corruption is you bent cnts !
They think this misdirection is gonna work ?
FCK OFF !!
 
Anyone who thought that the SPFL would stand back and do nothing about Rangers' accusations was misguided. Whilst I'm happy to believe that the Rangers' Board had strong grounds to issue the original statement, their lack of momentum since has handed the initiative back to the SPFL. If you are on the attack you need to press it home.

The vast majority of people on here know the "independent" investigation was a crock but the SPFL is now in the media with "independent" "investigation" "Deloittes" and "no wrongdoing". Now that won't convince any Rangers' fans but the SPFL don't care about that, we're not the target. The majority of other fans have moved on, will see the words and say to themselves "f*ck it, is my team going to survive?"

As much as I admire our board for the way it saved, and then ran, the club, I'm really disappointed at the number of ineffective statements it puts out there because every time they do that we lose a little bit of credibility. That doesn't help us gain many allies.
 
Remember.

Anything that they have done in relation to this (that is verifiable/ has an audit trail ) will have its i’s dotted and it’s t’s crossed.

We’re dealing with fućking snakes here, and I’m fućking s unnerved with it.
 
Had no idea you could text Iain Blair and that would cancel your vote. The process was to be done by email for a reason. It's open to corruption otherwise.

It's besides the point anyway, they've tried to shimmy around the part that will see them lose their job and I hope Rangers put the foot down and demand a more thorough investigation.

No mention of the early release of the results which completely undermines a ballot.
No mention of the phone call to the sheep chairman telling him his vote is useless, before results had even been announced.
No mention of the 'big hitters' and 'peter' being in touch with Dundee literally minutes after 5pm (confirmed by Dundee secretary on WhatsApp)
No mention of the (successful) attempt to change Dundee's mind.
No mention of how league reconstruction was dangled as a carrot for yes votes, which by the way is bribery.
And I find it very hard to believe that they only checked the 'quarantine' (spam) box at 8.30pm. The shitstorm started way before then so there is no chance in hell these guys sat there for hours scratching their heads waiting on an email only to check the spam box 3 and a half hours later.

But aye, everything's fine because Deloitte confirmed the email went into the spam box, investigation over. o_O
 
So Neil Doncaster contacted Nelms, advised him what they had to offer in exchange for changing their vote.

I really hope the evidence we have blows the whole thing to pieces.

But w
 
'an unread email from Eric Drysdale that had been sent at 16:48 on 10 April 2020' - so they have confirmed that the email was received by the SpFL before 5PM and before the communication to discount the vote. Call me old fashioned but the original vote has to stand.
 
So Dundee’s No vote was sent and received by the SPFL (albeit in their quarantine) prior to the 5pm deadline.

They’ve just openly admitted that.

Dundee voted No and we’re allowed to change their mind.
 
Zulu said:
Wheres the timeline and content of the telephone calls made to various spfl chairmen ? Some of whom have admitted it on live radio ?
Thats where the fckn corruption is you bent cnts !
They think this misdirection is gonna work ?
FCK OFF !!
Click to expand...

The limited scope of this " independent investigation " is laughable and won't be take seriously.
 
I have to hope that there's a bit of a headgame going on here between ourselves and this shower of shite. Are we giving them enough rope to hang themselves? Or as Sun Tzu once wrote: "Pretend inferiority and encourage his arrogance" before battering the utter shite of them. Metaphorically of course...
 
Said in the other thread that they'd paint this as the independent investigation we were asking for when it's really just a timeline of the Dundee vote shambles.

Nothing has been answered re
  • Doncaster phoning Aberdeen & advising them not to vote
  • Dundee being allowed to change their vote
  • Why they were allowed to vote on a different resolution (reconstruction now on the table)
  • Lawwell & Doncaster contacting them
  • Why Lawwell was even involved
  • The threats of withholding monies unless the resolution passed
And plenty other things. It's a fucking cop-out.
 
Echo_1 said:
Had no idea you could text Iain Blair and that would cancel your vote. The process was to be done by email for a reason. It's open to corruption otherwise.

It's besides the point anyway, they've tried to shimmy around the part that will see them lose their job and I hope Rangers put the foot down and demand a more thorough investigation.

No mention of the early release of the results which completely undermines a ballot.
No mention of the phone call to the sheep chairman telling him his vote is useless, before results had even been announced.
No mention of the 'big hitters' and 'peter' being in touch with Dundee literally minutes after 5pm (confirmed by Dundee secretary on WhatsApp)
No mention of the (successful) attempt to change Dundee's mind.
No mention of how league reconstruction was dangled as a carrot for yes votes, which by the way is bribery.
And I find it very hard to believe that they only checked the 'quarantine' (spam) box at 8.30pm. The shitstorm started way before then so there is no chance in hell these guys sat there for hours scratching their heads waiting on an email only to check the spam box 3 and a half hours later.

But aye, everything's fine because Deloitte confirmed the email went into the spam box, investigation over. o_O
Click to expand...

No mention of their evasive behaviour towards Rangers proposal in the previous days

No mention of their Thursday night statement about Rangers which included a lie & avoided other relevant information

No mention about their statement about Rangers at the weekend which again was misleading

Scum.
 
StaunchyAF said:
So Dundee’s No vote was sent and received by the SPFL (albeit in their quarantine) prior to the 5pm deadline.

They’ve just openly admitted that.

Dundee voted No and we’re allowed to change their mind.
Click to expand...

And if Dundee had 28 days to change their mind, as a few mentally challenged seem to be claiming, doesn’t that mean that there was LOTS of time for Rangers amendment to be sorted ?
 
How can providing a vague timeline of what happened with a "missing" vote be enough to clear themselves of any wrong doing and why are there compliant mhedia outlets running with that headline?
The only thing it proves is that Dundees no vote was sent at 16:48 and as per SPFLs own rules should be accepted as thus.
 
Time to add her to the list of people who should be investigated. That is a pathetic and embarrassing letter to send out hoping to close the matter. She is obviously out of her depth and needs to be ridiculed by the club.
 
Fat_zidane said:
Straight from the Hollicom playbook.

Release late on a Friday, turn the phones off everyone......time to be unavailable until it goes away.
Click to expand...
The open letter tells us very little we didn’t know at this time last week. The fact that the ‘no vote’ was in another ‘folder’ was known by Partick Thistle’s QC who said that the vote should stand. There is documentary proof that Dundee had originally voted ‘no’.
This ‘investigation’ (which could have been done in ten minutes by a P7 child) deals only with the mechanics of one aspect of one partof the whole situation. We have been presented with an open goal here. Surely, more than ever, other clubs must see that it is what has NOT been investigated which is where the real story lies.
Previously I thought we were on to something - now I’m certain of it. Go get them, Rangers !!!!
 
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