Top clubs could force SPFL split says Dundee chief John Nelms

John Nelms also addressed the saga around Dundee's missing vote last year

Scotland's top football clubs could force a breakaway from the SPFL if the way the game is run does not change, says Dundee managing director John Nelms.

The Scottish Premier League and Scottish Football League merged in 2013 to form one 42-club governing body.

But Nelms says conflicting interests between elite full-time clubs and the lower leagues could force change.

"I could see that happening," he told BBC Scotland.

"There was a bit of a change 10 years or so ago. Since then there hasn't been a whole lot. How does it happen? I don't know. It could get ugly. You could have breakaway groups.

"If the upper tier feels so passionately about something they're trying to do and they can't do it because the lower leagues say no, then yeah I think that could happen."

Nelms pointed to disagreements around the admission of clubs' colt teams in the senior leagues as one example of differing priorities between clubs.

"We've all talked about how Scottish football should look," the American added.

"We have 42 teams and you have three different groups that have very different ideals and wants and needs. Although the sport connects us all, the way we do certain things and run the business is night and day.

"Scottish football does get left behind a bit. Our TV deal doesn't allow us to do much - we're behind financially. We need more investment and need to be able to do things to make our product more saleable.

"The ones at the top are the ones on TV earning the money, so to speak. They're the ones that have the ideas and creativity to make some of these things happen."

What happened with the missing vote?

Speaking after Dundee's promotion to the Scottish Premiership following a play-off victory over Kilmarnock, Nelms also addressed the controversial events of last spring, when the Covid-19 pandemic halted football.

The SPFL drew up a resolution to call the season and award titles and enforce relegations, which Dundee originally voted against.

However, their emailed ballot was said to have got stuck in a quarantine folder which, given the 28-day period allowed for voting, gave Nelms time to reconsider his position. He did and Dundee ultimately cast the decisive vote for the resolution.

The Dundee chief said the delay gave him time to think and have further conversations with fellow club leaders.

"There were pressures," Nelms said. "Financially, a lot of clubs wanted this done because they needed that [prize] money. When I eventually voted the way I did, that was very evident. They're days away from insolvency.

"Could that have been done another way? Probably. But there was no firm answer to these questions. Then you have 42 clubs - the majority of them wanted to go down this path."

Nelms also refuted any suggestion he had been offered incentives to change his vote, adding that conversations he had previously had with Premiership chiefs led him to believe the proposal would not pass among those clubs.

"Nobody tried to bribe me to vote a certain way," he said. "When you talk about pressures, that's not it.

"People are emotional because their business is about to go under. I don't know what could be an incentive for us to change our vote. Did you see half a dozen loan players at Dundee?

"It was the best solution for a very bad situation. The other solutions on the table, other people weren't going to contemplate that."