SPFL resolution waiting on one vote from unnamed Championship club
The proposals would see the immediate curtailment of the Championship, League One and League Two campaigns.
The Scottish Professional Football League’s contentious resolution is resting on just one Championship club that failed to vote by Friday’s 5pm deadline.
The proposals would see the immediate curtailment of the Championship, League One and League Two campaigns, with the right to decide the Premiership on a points-per-game basis handed to the SPFL board if the coronavirus was to prevent its resumption.
The body received 39 responses as of 5pm on Friday, with 85 per cent in favour of the resolution – but three clubs have yet to make their stance known.
The SPFL Board met this evening to consider the responses to the resolution sent to clubs on 8 April.
Full details:https://t.co/zRrSYMyHCS pic.twitter.com/gjlswpzNw3
— SPFL (@spfl) April 10, 2020
The SPFL achieved enough votes in favour of the resolution in the Premiership as well as Leagues One and Two, despite the fact a club failed to vote in each group.
But the decision hinges on the missing vote from an unnamed Championship club. Eight votes are needed in favour in the second tier and the current figure is one shy, with seven for and two against.
An SPFL spokesman said: “It is very important that clubs consider carefully the resolution and we are grateful to those clubs who have voted already.
“With the Ladbrokes Premiership and Ladbrokes Leagues 1 & 2 divisions each having approved the resolution, we await the voting slip from the one Ladbrokes Championship club that has yet to vote.
“We will provide an update as soon as we are in a position to do so.”
Nine supporting votes were needed in the Premiership and the SPFL said 10 clubs at that level voted in favour, with just one against.
Hearts would be relegated if the season could not be completed and have made their intention to reject the proposal public, as have second-placed Rangers.
The Ibrox giants warned on Wednesday that there would be “severe consequences for the Scottish game” if the resolution passed, while they labelled plans to relegate clubs “abhorrent”.
Ahead of Friday’s vote, Rangers said they will resubmit their request for prize money to be released early in order to help clubs in Scotland stay afloat – but the SPFL rejected claims it failed to help with the original submission.
Rangers said they had discovered on Friday morning their members’ resolution was not competent, and claimed they had sought assistance with the details from the SPFL executive “on several occasions” without response.
The SPFL refuted those comments with its own statement, in which it said it had not received a request from Rangers until 10.18pm on Thursday night and said it would work with the club on the revised submission.
Celtic are line for another Premiership title if the currently postponed season could not restart and these proposals pass.
The immediate impact of ending the other three divisions would see Dundee United promoted to the Premiership.
Raith Rovers would move up to the Championship and Cove Rangers would join League One, with Partick Thistle relegated to the third tier and Stranraer to the fourth.
Across League One and Two, the 15 votes required to pass the motion were met despite one club failing to vote. The SPFL recorded 16 votes in favour and three against.
