Lynne Cameron/PA WireNeil Doncaster claims there's unity in Scottish soccer, but there is plenty of evidence to the contrary.

With a first glance at media reports on the outcome of Scottish Premier League's meeting, you would have been forgiven for believing that the SPL clubs had voted for the new league reconstruction plan of a 12-12-18 setup. Chief Executive Neil Doncaster proudly proclaimed that:

"The clubs were united in their view about the need for change. I firmly believe that any change can only come from consensus and there's one consensus model for change going forward. The SPL clubs have been clear today that they, in principle back this being taken to the next stage. It's now for the Scottish Football League clubs to give their views on Thursday."

Sorry? You mean the SPL haven’t actually voted for anything and have only agreed 'in principle' to do something after they see what the Scottish Football League (SFL) clubs do?

That can’t be true, as surely these leaders of Scottish football wouldn’t pass the buck in exactly the same way as they did all last summer? But a statement from Motherwell FC confirmed that “There was no formal vote today however as a club, we indicated our support to the SPL Executive to progress discussions with the SFL.”

How depressing! Not only does it show a lack of forward thinking, but the timescale for setting up the reconstruction has just been pushed back again. It could be weeks, even months, before anyone knows what is going to happen next season.

And for Rangers? They could be playing in matches for promotion or the SFL3 title and weeks before the end of the season could be told that it didn’t really matter. "Hey Rangers, never mind about all that money spent ensuring that you were promoted. Don’t bother Gers fans for turning out in incredible numbers to watch your team in a league race, we’re just going to forget the rules at the start of the season and you’ll all get to re-play the same teams again. Oh I mean everyone is promoted . . . .that sounds much better."

And if you think this is only the view of Rangers, then look around at other supporters groups. On Sunday, the ArabTrust also said "we are not in favour of rushing through the introduction of all of the proposed changes in summer 2013", calling it "grossly unfair that clubs are being asked to vote on this matter, when little detail or any alternatives have been provided, and where it appears to be a take-it-or-leave-it scenario."

Ironically Dundee United were one of the strongest supporters of fan opinion when it looked as if they would vote Rangers FC out of the SPL. Now that opinion is presumably no longer shared with the board - it is ignored.

Such is life, but let’s not pretend these plans are being run by altruists interested in the good of the game. The weakness of the Scottish Football Association (SFA) has led to a power vacuum that is helping some clubs and not others. The lack of a concrete vote Monday is a possible sign that there are fractures within the SPL, or else why wouldn’t they just go ahead?

As Rangers’ CEO Charles Green says, "[The] SPL chief executive Neil Doncaster is telling everyone [the] agreement was unanimous. So why the delay? Might it have been too big a risk to put the format to a vote today? The SFL clubs meet on Thursday and there has to be the concern that if they don’t vote or arrive at any concrete solution then Scottish football could be back in the same situation which caused so much trauma last summer.

"What we don’t need is a repeat of that when one group would meet but do nothing hoping the other lot would make a decision. This is far too important an issue for it to be knocked back and forth but I really do wonder if all 12 clubs are happy with today’s outcome.”

The educated guess would be that Green is correct here and there is no unanimity, but then who really knows? The only certainty in Scottish football is that the more things change the more they stay the same. Self-interest of the few will remain King.

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