RANGERS have been told they must present any evidence of wrongdoing to the SPFL board if they want an independent investigation into the governing body’s handling of a crucial vote last week.
Douglas Park, the Ibrox interim chairman, called on Saturday for SPFL chief executive Neil Doncaster and legal adviser Rod McKenzie to be suspended pending an inquiry into their conduct.
A statement on the Ladbrokes Premiership club’s official website claimed “a whistleblower” had handed them evidence which raised serious doubts over the SPFL’s stewardship of the vote.
It has been suggested that Rangers will only show that evidence to an independent inquiry.
However, Roy MacGregor, the chairman of Ross County, believes the Ibrox club must present the information they have to the SPFL board before an investigation can be given the go-ahead.
Asked by BBC Scotland if he thought that Doncaster and McKenzie should be suspended, MacGregor replied: “No, I don’t. I trust the board.
"The board is made up of clubs, and members of clubs that we have put onto the situation. We have Stewart Robertson (Rangers), we have Les Gray (Hamilton) and we have Alan Burrows (Motherwell) from the Premiership and people from the Championship.
“We have trusted that decision making in them and they work with an executive to come up with the conclusions. Now if something is presented to the board and they feel an inquiry should happen, then, yeah.
“But at the moment the clubs have to trust their board, have to trust their executive, and if Rangers feel something has not happened properly then please present it to the board so that they can deal with it.
“If I was a director there I wouldn’t be wanting to hang my chief executive or my lawyer up without grounds. That would be a normal business principle. If there are things they are unhappy with I think they need to get them onto the table.
“Stewart Robertson, who is a fine man, is on that board. I don’t know the ins and outs of it. He must be feeling uncomfortable that things are going on behind-the-scenes before it came out there. I think you have maybe got to explain that a bit more. I think the clubs would have the same view as me. They trust the representatives on the board.”
MacGregor admitted that he was concerned about the long-term implications of the episode will have for the SPFL after the Covid-19 outbreak.
"I worry about the fallout from things like this," MacGregor said."I was involved at the times of reorganisation before, Rangers going down the leagues and if these things are not healed, particularly in a members club situation, the memories last for years and there's recrimination.
"I think we've got to find some way of healing where there is challenges, doubts, suspicion."
MacGregor, who predicted that the pandemic will have disastrous consequences financially for Ross County, revealed the Dingwall club had backed the resolution to enable them to plan for next season.
“We voted for this thing,” he said. “There is no ideal situation here. To get promoted or relegated is a serious thing for a club, for its manager, for its supporters, for its players. We need certainty. It wasn’t about money.
“At Ross County we haven’t gone on sale with season tickets, which we would normally have done, because we believe that with social distancing and having two metres around everyone we might only get a tenth of our attendance into the stadium.
“We believe that we might not have corporate work, and we have huge corporate business. But if you can’t take people in for corporate our income deficiency is well into seven figures. That is a disaster for us. Unless we have certainty I can’t look ahead plan ahead and sign players or tell my season ticket holders that only one in five is going to get a season ticket next years.”
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