SCOTTISH football is set to vote again on Inverness Caledonian Thistle's bid to be admitted to the Scottish Premier League.

The Herald understands some clubs claim the first vote this week may not have been carried out correctly.

This emerged last night when Hearts and Hibs combined to notify officials at the SPL of their concern over the way the issue was handled.

Their letter of complaint will arrive at the SPL's Hampden headquarters this morning and a meeting will be held on Monday, June 21, to discuss the issue.

Both clubs believe the good name of the Scottish game has been sullied by the events of this week when Caledonian Thistle were denied promotion by a vote of 7-5. Inverness needed eight of the 12 votes to be in their favour.

There are questions to be answered over the procedures in place at the meeting and the way the decision to block the application came about. The outcome on Tuesday ensured Partick Thistle, who finished bottom of the Bank of Scotland Premierleague, retained SPL status.

Hearts and Hibs want clarification over the claim that the Highland club fell one vote short of the eight votes they required, a point which has been in dispute.

The Herald understands that one of their reasons for raising that point is that two votes were taken at the meeting. It is alleged the first was counted 8-4 in support of Inverness, which would have given them the

go-ahead for promotion.

At the second count, carried out as a check, the vote was, some claim, corrected to 7-5.

The new meeting on the matter must go ahead. SPL rules state that if any two clubs request a meeting on a matter already discussed it must be convened. It has been suggested that this time each club should state publicly which way they vote, rather than taking part in a secret ballot.

Chris Robinson, chief executive of Hearts, said: ''I've decided to put forward a motion for another general meeting to have the vote run again. I believe it was a flawed decision on Tuesday and the clubs need a chance to reconsider.''

Rod Petrie, managing director of Hibernian, said last night a number of clubs were unhappy at the way the Inverness application was handled. He said: ''Based on media reports, it would appear that eight clubs are claiming to have supported the Inverness Caledonian Thistle proposal,'' he said. ''The vote on the day seemed to indicate only seven clubs supported their proposal, one fewer than was required.

''There is confusion over that and confusion over whether there was a March 31 deadline [in place] or not for ground-sharing proposals to be lodged with the SPL. Bearing both these points in mind, good sense indicates we reconvene a meeting on the matter.''

It is believed that Dundee may be one of the clubs whose decision was influenced by that confusion.

Stewart Thomson, a spokesman for the SPL, confirmed that a new meeting on the issue of promotion and relegation from the SPL will be held.

John Robertson, the Inverness manager, said last night it was once again up to the

officials from the 12 SPL clubs to make up their minds whether his team play in the top flight next season.

''We can do no more,'' said Robertson. ''The players won us promotion fairly and squarely, we had a ground-sharing plan in place and we were looking forward to taking our place in the SPL. It is good that a new meeting will be held on the matter.''

The news may discomfit Partick Thistle representatives who spoke earlier yesterday about pressing ahead with budgets with another season in the top flight in mind.

Tom Hughes, the Thistle chairman, was last night unavailable to comment on the development.

Earlier, Alan Dick, Partick

Thistle's chief executive, said: ''We are going to press ahead with everything. Season ticket prices will be announced shortly and we have fixed matchday admission prices based on being in the SPL. The managers have a Premierleague budget for next season, although they will be very conservative with signing players in the short-term.

''Offers will be made to players on the basis we are in the SPL next season. We know players will only want to sign for us if they are given the chance to play at the top level. We are pretty sure Inverness will not be successful in their appeal [to the SFA] although, of course, we don't know for certain.

''The appeal is really nothing at all to do with us. The SPL will presumably be represented at the meeting but we have absolutely no input to that at all.''

A sports lawyer last night said Thistle could have grounds to pursue a damages claim against the SPL and SFA should the decision on Inverness be reversed on appeal.

However, Firhill board members have previously said they are willing to let the footballing authorities reach a final decision on the matter.

Despite spending more than (pounds) 1m in 2002 to bring Firhill up to the then SPL requirements, Thistle will give their backing to the planned change to reduce the seating requirement. He said: ''We support the move because as a club we believe 6000 is sufficient.''

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