WHO needs Scottish fitba for entertainment on a Saturday afternoon when you have the almighty stooshie over the SPFL resolution on the end of the 2019/20 season to keep you amused?

The presenter and pundits on the Sportsound programme on BBC Radio Scotland at the weekend may not have had any live matches to update listeners on as the shutdown of the game here due to the coronavirus pandemic continued.

But the interview with Scot Gardiner, the Inverness Caledonian Thistle chief executive, was more explosive than any burst upfield by Borna Barisic, Andrew Considine or James Forrest had been in the preceding months when football was still being played.

With supporters around the country still scratching their heads and trying to figure out what had transpired the previous evening – when the SPFL announced that it was waiting on one unnamed Championship club to cast an all-important vote – Gardiner came on and provided some much-needed clarity.

Or so it seemed.

The former Dundee chief executive and Hearts chief operating officer revealed that three second tier clubs, Dundee, Inverness and Partick Thistle, had agreed to oppose the proposal in the days leading up to the requested deadline at 5pm on Friday.

READ MORE: SPFL chairman reveals Championship club asked for their resolution vote not to be considered 

He told how he, Gerry Britton, the Partick chief executive, and Eric Drysdale, the Dundee secretary, had all posted photographs of their “no” slips on a WhatsApp group along with confirmations that they had sent their emails in.

Gardiner then recalled his amazement and confusion when he was later informed the SPFL had declared that only two Championship clubs had voted against the resolution.

His revelations hinted at – the day after Rangers had accused the SPFL of bullying and coercing clubs into supporting their plan to call time on the season early and promote and relegate teams on a points per game basis - behind-the-scenes skullduggery and made the back pages of all the Sunday newspapers.

Gardiner did state that John Nelms, the Dundee chief executive, had asked Drysdale to hold off resubmitting their vote after he had learned the SPFL hadn’t received it. But at no stage did he outline why the initial missive had failed to reach its intended recipient. The listener was left with the distinct impression that foul play had been afoot.

However, the WhatsApp conversation, including the aforementioned photographs of the completed forms, later made their way online and showed exactly what had happened. Or, at least, what Drysdale suspected had gone wrong. The reason was far more prosaic.

The former Raith Rovers chief executive explained in the conversation that he had attached the picture to an email as a PDF - and was of the opinion that it had tripped a firewall at the SPFL.

Now, technology, along with English, is not your correspondent’s strong point. But having consulted with an IT specialist on this matter it would appear that is entirely feasible. Sorry to disappoint all the conspiracy theorists out there.

When Nelms learned of the bizarre turn of events he, no doubt sensing an opportunity to negotiate and perhaps push for league reconstruction from a position of some strength, requested that Drysdale sit tight while he reconsidered.

Gardiner had stated in the radio interview that he didn’t want to read out a light-hearted comment that Drysdale had made in the WhatsApp chat. But he was quite content to relay, word for word in some instances, other remarks in what was a private correspondence without the permission of the person who had made them. So why fail to mention that particular passage? It was kind of key.

An innocent oversight? Perhaps. But Caley Thistle’s decision to oppose the resolution was curious in the first place. They are in a far from healthy financial predicament.

Their chief executive insisted they were unable to consign clubs to relegation because of the far-reaching implications, including possible redundancies, of that. That is, on the face of it, admirable.

READ MORE: Roy MacGregor: I trust the SPFL board - Rangers must show them their evidence to get an inquiry 

But what will the impact of a further delay in forwarding prize money to clubs who are struggling to stay afloat at the moment be? Clubs need the end-of-season payments and they need them now. It just doesn’t add up.

The SPFL have much to answer for in this whole sorry affair. Why on earth were the votes cast by 5pm on Friday made public when the decisive slip had still not been received? It completely changed the dynamic of the whole process. Surely they should have waited until all the votes had been cast?

The conduct of certain individuals within the organisation in the build-up to the vote last week has also been described as “a disgrace” and “dreadful” as well as “bullying”.

But it would appear that the SPFL have not been guilty of any wrongdoing in the case of Dundee’s missing email. The Dens Park club did request that their vote wasn’t considered if and when it landed in the governing body’s inbox and did ask for the weekend to mull things over. It is incumbent on them to explain that in the days ahead and calm an increasingly volatile situation.

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