Rangers get their wish as SPFL board call EGM for 12 May

The SPFL board of directors have called an extraordinary general meeting for 12 May to discuss Rangers’ demand for an independent investigation into the processes of the governing body’s resolution empowering them to end the 2019-20 season.

Rangers managing director Stewart Robertson was asked to recuse himself from SPFL board meeting.

Along with Hearts and Stranraer, both condemned to relegation as a consequence of the controversial vote which passed the resolution, Rangers lodged a requisition calling for a general meeting of all 42 SPFL clubs.

The SPFL held a board meeting by videoconference on Monday evening and have now scheduled the EGM for 14 days’ time, the soonest it can take place under their articles of association.

Rangers managing director Stewart Robertson, an SPFL board member, was asked to recuse himself from Monday’s meeting while the requisition was discussed.

The Ibrox club say they have a ‘dossier of evidence’ with regards to ‘bullying and coercion’ of clubs in the build-up to the ballot on the SPFL’s resolution which was eventually passed by Dundee voting ‘Yes’ after withdrawing an earlier ‘No’ vote.

Rangers, who have called for the suspension of SPFL chief executive Neil Doncaster and legal counsel Rod McKenzie, have promised to supply the evidence to all member clubs ‘well in advance’ of the EGM.

In order for Rangers to succeed in approving an external independent investigation into their allegations of misgovernance by the SPFL’s executive, they will need the backing of 31 other clubs at the EGM.

The resolution requires 75 percent support of clubs in each of the Premiership and Championship along with 75 percent support from clubs in League 1 and League 2 combined. That’s a minimum of nine Premiership clubs, eight Championship clubs and 15 clubs from League 1 and 2.

The SPFL last Friday revealed details of what they claimed was a ‘comprehensive and independent investigation’ into the chronology of Dundee’s ‘missing vote’, carried out by auditors Deloitte on the instruction of chairman Murdoch MacLennan and independent non-executive director Karyn McCluskey.

It declared there had been ‘no evidence of improper behaviour by SPFL personnel’. Unsurprisingly, this failed to satisfy Rangers who were immediately critical of the narrow scope of the SPFL’s investigation.

They are calling for an independent investigation to look into a series of issues, including why the SPFL announced a tally of votes before every club had submitted their ballot paper and why Dundee were allowed to vote a second time after their initial ballot, which would have sunk the resolution, was disregarded.

Rangers are also questioning the ‘interaction of SPFL executives with clubs during the voting process’ and the ‘compliance of SPFL directors with statutory and common law duties’.

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