Dundee were to vote against SPFL plans but league says nothing received

BBC Scotland has seen a voting slip, signed and dated by Dundee managing director John Nelms

Dundee intended to vote against the proposal to finish the lower league seasons early, but the SPFL says no intimation was ever received from the club.

BBC Scotland has seen a voting slip from the Championship club, signed and dated by managing director John Nelms, which shows they were voting against.

But the SPFL say no vote was received from Dundee, whose decision will determine the success of the resolution.

The league has the necessary backing of 10 of the 12 Premiership clubs, and 16 of the 20 in Leagues One and Two.

As it stands, nine of the 10 second-tier sides have voted 7-2 in favour.

But with eight votes needed for the resolution to pass Dundee will have the decisive say having missed the requested deadline, but it remains unclear if they will stick to their original intention.

Inverness Caledonian Thistle and Partick Thistle were the clubs in the Championship to reject the proposal.

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The SPFL wanted responses by 17:00 BST on Friday, but it later emerged clubs had 28 days to respond according to league rules.

According to the league, Dundee emailed them after the deadline saying: "Please do not consider our vote cast at this time."

The club, who are third in the Championship, released a statement on Friday evening criticising the proposal saying it "condemns clubs to be financially worse off than they are already" citing lost revenue of up to £4m.

If passed, the resolution will end the Championship, League One and Two seasons early with the Premiership curtailed only when the SPFL board determines the current campaign cannot be completed.

The league had also committed to dialogue with clubs about possible league reconstruction if the resolution carried.

Rangers and Hearts were the Premiership sides to vote against having both publicly condemned the resolution.

Rangers said they were going to resubmit their own proposal to free up final placing money to cash-strapped clubs without calling the Premiership season now, after being told by the league that their initial resolution was legally "ineffective".

And Dundee called for similar action, adding: "In all cases, current placement monies could be distributed to the member clubs in very short order while maintaining all SPFL obligations.

"Make no mistake; we would have to work quickly and diligently to ensure that members' current needs are met and that the democratic process is followed, but it is achievable."

The voting slips

Dundee's voting slip, signed by managing director John Nelms, though the SPFL say they never received it

Inverness' voting slip, signed by chief executive Scot Gardiner

Partick Thistle's voting slip, signed by chief executive Gerry Britton