Alan Pattullo: The SPFL deserves the mess that it finds itself in

Putting the resolution to clubs at such short notice is a strange way to operate

SPFL chief executive Neil Doncaster is at the centre of another civil war in Scottish football. Picture Ian Rutherford

One of the biggest winners in the latest civil war to befall Scottish football are the mobile phone companies. One club chief 
executive took or made a total of 54 calls on Thursday.

It offers some insight regarding
the politicking that goes on around these occasions.

The phones of directors, owners and assorted football club officials have been red hot since Wednesday lunchtime, when the SPFL published its recommended proposal to curtail the league season, with final league placings determined by points per game in league matches played to date by each club.

Oh, but then that’s only for the lower three tiers. The Premiership’s fate will be dealt with at a later date. And you have 72 hours in which to decide.

What a strange way to operate. The process deserves the mess into which it seemed to descend last night, with one Championship club – Dundee – having failed to lodge their vote by the suggested deadline of 5pm. And this after Rangers had already submitted an alternative proposal which was duly deemed “ineffective” by the SPFL on legal grounds.

“The sporting context gets played out at 
meetings like this,” former SPFL chairman Ralph Topping, pictured, told me this week.

“It becomes gladiatorial – ‘we are representing the support’.”

He has experience of what increasingly seems an inefficient system. The grandstanding deflects from the serious issues at hand.

And how is it possible that the fans’ voices are never heard? We all look on and wonder about what is being said behind closed doors and to what extent horse-trading is taking place.

It’s unedifying. Topping expressed confidence that the right decision is arrived at, 
eventually. We can only hope so.