The SPFL have hit back at complaints that club members had their microphones muted during Wednesday's General Meeting to avoid answering tough questions on a new league shutdown - insisting they answered all submitted questions 'comprehensively'.

The Scottish football governing body faced criticism from Stenhousemuir chief Iain McMenemy who claimed the SPFL attempted to silence club bosses during the meeting by muting their microphones and denying them an opportunity to speak.

The furious chairman had hoped to discuss in detail the decision to call a halt to league football below the Scottish Championship amid the coronavirus pandemic for three weeks. However all 42 member clubs had their mics silenced.

McMenemy said: "Club representatives had their microphones muted and the only communication accepted was where clubs could email questions to the secretary, who would in turn email them to the chairman and he would read them out. 

“Fans own our game, they are the biggest stakeholders in our clubs. Silencing the club voices who are in place to represent fans, in arguably the worst crisis Scottish football has faced, is an affront to supporters everywhere.

“The SPFL refused to allow any discussion between clubs on this topic, and any other issues in that meeting. At no point were clubs allowed to speak. I made a number of requests to speak, and they were all refused.

“So faced with the news of this imposed suspension of football, our own league body refused clubs the opportunity to discuss this at our own Members General Meeting."

SPFL chief Neil Doncaster took umbrage with McMenemy's claims and now a spokesperson for the body has said: "As with previous meetings, given there were over 50 people on the Zoom call, we advised all 42 clubs in advance that questions should be emailed in, to ensure everyone had a chance to make their points. 

"The chairman reiterated this procedure at the start of the meeting. All questions received during the meeting were read out in full by the chairman and answered comprehensively."