Dundee chief rues 'mess that should have been sorted'

Saturday 7 July 2012

Scot Gardiner, the chief executive of Dundee, has confirmed his club will not be allowed to cast a vote on where to install Rangers newco next season as it constitutes a conflict of interest.

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The Dens Park club are in line to replace Rangers in the Clydesdale Bank Premier League for the new season.

The Scottish Football League have therefore told Gardiner that his club will not get a vote alongside the rest of their member clubs, when the SFL chooses whether to accommodate Rangers in the Irn-Bru First Division or make them start out in the Third Division.

The chief executive is now keen to distance his club from the vote – which will be held next week – but he has been left unimpressed by the way the crisis has developed."It has been a mess. It is hard to second guess what could have been done because these are unprecedented, uncharted waters," he said. "So I'm loathe to criticise although I wish it had all been sorted out quicker."We've been told we can't vote by our governing body and we have to abide by that. And so we are trying not to then impact [on the vote] because they're then telling us we're conflicted. We're not going to do anything that will leave anyone the excuse where they can point the finger and say 'well they would say that wouldn't they?"'Dunfermline Athletic had hoped to challenge the Dens Park side to be placed back in the SPL, but John Yorkston last night suggested they had accepted defeat. "We've definitely not been invited to join the SPL, we're still an SFL club," said the Dunfermline chairman. "Until we're told anything different we're planning to open our campaign against Dumbarton."The SFL clubs will vote on the issue after their SPL counterparts refused Rangers newco entry into the top flight. Kilmarnock were the only club to abstain from voting and supporters have since hit out at chairman Michael Johnston. They feel that he did not represent their views, with many wishing their club to vote 'no'.Johnston fears financial problems at Rugby Park after the vote, but fans remain unimpressed. A Kilmarnock Trust statement read: "The Killie Trust would like to disassociate themselves from the actions of the Kilmarnock chairman at the SPL meeting on Wednesday. It is felt we have been misrepresented by [Johnston] in this case. His refusal to vote was clearly not in the best long-term interests of the club as it cast a shadow of doubt over our own integrity in this sorry affair."Motherwell are hoping for a more positive response from their supporters, with Leeann Dempster, the club's chief executive, intent on viewing the situation as an opportunity for change. "Scottish football is currently in crisis and we need to face up to this challenge by uniting as clubs and as supporters to get every club through these difficult time."

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Dundee chief rues 'mess that should have been sorted'

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