SPFL chief executive Neil Doncaster has urged Rangers to present chairman Murdoch MacLennan with any evidence of wrongdoing during the recent resolution to conclude the Championship, League One and League Two campaigns.

The season in Scotland's lower leagues has officially ended with the current standings made final after the vast majority of members voted in favour of passing the resolution. The top flight has not yet been concluded but the resolution gives the Premiership a mandate to call the season early.

However, Scottish football's governing body has faced criticism for how the vote was conducted. Dundee's vote went missing and the Championship club were allowed to cast their ballot after the results of the vote had been published, Aberdeen chairman Dave Cormack was apparently told not to submit his vote by Doncaster before the 5pm deadline, while Rangers have accused the SPFL of strong-arming clubs into voting for the proposal.

The Ibrox club have become embroiled in a war of words with the governing body, calling for the immediate suspension of Doncaster and the SPFL's legal advisor Rod McKenzie, with chairman Douglas Park claiming that Rangers have evidence that raises serious questions over the conduct of the poll. Rangers, Hearts and Stranraer have since called for an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) of the SPFL which will take place on 12 May.

Speaking to Sky Sports, Doncaster said he was not threatened by the 'vague assertions' coming from Govan, and argued that the money that would be used towards conducting an independent investigation - something that Park has proposed - would be better used to support clubs during the financial uncertainty of the Covid-19 pandemic.

"Ultimately, if people have allegations they wish to make then they should have the courage to bring them forward to the chairman and let them be investigated," he said. "It’s absolutely right and proper that any allegations are brought forward and to the attention of the chairman so they can be investigated. 

"It’s just not acceptable for these vague assertions to be made without anything being brought forward. We’ve got demands for suspension of myself and another trusted employee of the SPFL without any clarity as to what it is we’ve alleged to have done wrong. 

"I just don’t find that acceptable at all. In terms of relationships, we exist to serve all 42 member clubs. We’re an entirely democratic members organisation and it’s the right of the three clubs [Rangers, Hearts and Stranraer] to call for an EGM.

"As a result, the Board have put that EGM in place on May 12 and if the 42 member clubs decide they want our time and their money spent on this exercise then that is their democratic right. 

"I would say eight out of the nine SPFL Board members feel that is wholly inappropriate and not good use of anyone’s time or money and we should be pulling together to fight the common enemy that is Covid-19.

"I feel all of us have acted with integrity and acted with the best interests of all 42 clubs as a whole at the forefront of our minds. We’ve done what we can under time pressure in circumstances where we know clubs are crying out for clarity and money and want games to return.

"We all want the situation to move on, we all want games to be played, and we’d far rather be talking about football than all of these matters."

The contact between clubs before they had submitted their votes has come under particular scrutiny in recent weeks, especially in the cases of Dundee and Aberdeen. But Doncaster insisted that there is nothing untoward about the process.

He said: "There was communication between me and a large number of clubs as there was between different chairmen and CEOs of all sorts of clubs in Scotland. 

"That’s entirely normal and appropriate. The last time we had a similarly big vote was probably around the time of league reconstruction and the merger of the leagues in 2013 and exactly the same happened then. 

"You’ve got different clubs that take different positions and lobby other clubs for what they believe is right. That’s entirely normal, there’s nothing in any sense exceptional about that."