Saints stick to their guns

Last updated : 15 April 2013 By Stuart Gillespie

Saints revealed last Monday they intended to reject the plans due to a number of concerns, including the retention of the 11-1 voting system, poor financial controls and the ridiculous 8-8-8 league set-up. Ross County were also expected to vote no but didn't make their intentions public until today's vote at Hampden. Ironically, as we have a rather undemocratic voting system, two clubs voting against the proposals was enough to defeat them!

Unsurprisingly, this brought a lot of ire from chairmen of other SPL clubs. Curiously, most of it seems to be directed at us rather than County - who have been the subject of numerous attempts to pressure them to change their mind in the past week. Aberdeen chairman Stewart Milne had a particularly entertaining meltdown where he accused us of ruining Scottish football. The irony that this man stopped a change to the 11-1 voting system - a change that would have allowed today's plans to be voted through - was apparently lost on him.

Interestingly, it emerged there were attempts to get a compromise to the plans - despite pevious claims there was little room for negotiation. There was a brief offer of a change to the voting system, one of Saints chairman Stewart Gilmour's big concerns, but it emerged this was only for the structure of the league, rather than other issues. That didn't stop certain people accusing us of hidden agendas for continuing to oppose the change.

This idea is nonsense. The board studied the proposals, listened to the fans and came to their decision - one I think is the right one. The idea we are acting for Rangers or anyone else is laughable. The fact is the people that run our club had concerns over the proposals and used their democratic right to vote against them. Why should two well run clubs listen to other outfits who are on the brink of financial disaster? Not our fault they can't live within their means.

So the 12-12-18/8-8-8 idea seems dead. But something tells me we haven't heard the last of this or the much feared SPL2. Get ready for another summer of discontent.

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