St Mirren’s Stewart Gilmour believes that other SPL chairmen attempted to bully him into voting in favour of league reconstruction.
Gilmour and Roy McGregor of Ross County rejected the plans leaving reconstruction hopes dead in the water.
Aberdeen’s Stewart Milne and David Southern of Hearts were highly critical of Gilmour’s attitude at the vote with the Saints chief quick to hit back.
“What troubled me was that there was an arrogance and bullying throughout the meeting which was unacceptable,” Gilmour claimed.
“There wasn’t a good atmosphere. There was an attitude of reconciliation from some, but unfortunately the criticism from others did get rather personal.
“I’ve been accused of self-interest, but anybody who goes to these meetings and says it’s not to look after their own club first and foremost is at it.
“As regards Stewart Milne’s personal outburst, it was a very emotional time. Here’s hoping that in the cold light of day, Stewart will sit down and think: ‘Maybe I was a bit over the top there’.
“He was upset and annoyed, just as many of us were. Hopefully in the next few months he’ll give me a call or shake my hand and say ‘we disagreed, but that’s life’.
“It’s not impossible for me to sit round the table with the others — in fact, I hope it happens sooner rather than later. I’ll get together today, tomorrow, any time they want. This is nothing personal, this is about running a football club within a structure we would love to see as one governing body.
“We should be able to fall out and fall in again, God knows it happens round this boardroom table often enough.
“If they came to us tomorrow and asked us to put a plan on the table, we’d keep pushing for one league body, an all-through distribution of finance, a play-off between the SPL and First Division brought in now.
“But whatever we do, let’s just get all 42 clubs together for a year or two, let’s see how everyone gets on and see whether there’s a system we all want to move to.”
Gilmour added: “What I couldn’t understand all along is why this was the only option put forward and why more clubs of similar size to St Mirren, the community clubs, weren’t openly against it as we were.
“So many of us run our businesses similarly and think similarly, but it feels like some of them voted for it even though they didn’t want it.
“That’s the other troubling side to this — there has been a lot of dishonesty. For instance, on Radio Scotland last week, Dundee chief executive Scot Gardiner said they’ll get £50,000 from the football authorities if they’re relegated.
“But he was being more than economical with the truth, because he’s now saying in interviews that they’ll get £250,000 in a parachute payment.
“I don’t understand why he would say what wasn’t true. We told SPL meetings in February and March that we were uncomfortable with what was on the table.
“The reason we couldn’t stop things at the time was there was no vote at the time, but they were well aware that both we and Ross County were not happy. Again, you tell me why anyone would claim they didn’t know this was the case?”
Everyone else is wrong, Gilmour knows best.
Im away to oil the zip in the back of my nut.
Tumbleweeds to his lot….
SUrely if they were unhappy with the plans in February, they SHOULD have brought new improved plans to the table for discussion in March or were they wanting someone else to do all the work / take the flak if it didn’t work out.
Gilmour is in no position to complain about bullying or other clubs deriding St. Mirren after his outrageous comments last year when the SFL upheld sporting integrity by refusing to accept Sevco into the 1st Division – clearly against Gilmour’s wises.
What is they say about empty barrels, he will have plenty of time to contemplate when he sees how empty his away end is next season.
I don’t think the new format was workable, but I WOULD have offered up an alternative instead of bumping my gums and doing nothing
it should have been tossed out in jan with something else on the table
the first thing that the sfa has to do is sort out rfc before anything else and make sure if lies were told last year to get membership it must be removed this would need to be sorted first,so when things are sorted no change would be needed ps the other thing that should be of the table is each club should keep thier own gates only if you reach later stages at hampden should it be split,refs should be employed with the league thier in plus explain big disitions after game this would put trust back in the game and a proper indapendant to oversee the meetings . this could still start next season all we need is honesty and a bit of give and take only clubs with audited accounts and full membership should be involved get started now .
i would like spl with 18 teams play home and away no religation for the first three yrs then 2 up 2down or play offs this would be for each league invite more clubs in to bottom league add freshness
I hope he doesn’t miss the celtic support. Or support of any other club in spl. In 18 months , if even , when their going down the swan like half of scottish clubs , may he look back and remember , he done this. He will be responiible for the total death and innialation of scottish football. Every football fan in scotland of any club should be annoyed as any football fan has ever been toward another chairman. The beginning of the end for st mirren
A chance for the futre “LOST
appologise for any spelling mistakes
WAS IT NOT A 3RD DIVISION CLUBS OWNER WHO SUCCESSFULLY BULLIED HIM?
Now the fun will really start with the SFA being asked to intervene by the SPL….imagine asking Messrs Ogilvie & Reagan for assistance !!!
Absolutely without question – No. 1 on the agend MUST be Sporting Integrity, no fast tracking for ANY club…..No question of sharing home gate monies, then and only then can we discuss various formats for new leagues.
Any attempt to push Sevco up a level to help Scottish Football will lead to a complete disaster, the ball will be well & truly burst if that is even a remote proposal from anyone at the table. They should then be escorted from the premises and given room & board in an establishement with padded wallpaper. The current Sevco works team are on the verge of collapse and any new Submarine FC should be made to follow follow strict procedures as per any other new club i.e. 3 years audited accounts etc which might help restore faith / trust in those who run / ruin our game.