The passing of a resolution which saw the Scottish football season abandoned for the country's bottom three tiers is an "absolute mess" according to Steven Gerrard.
On Wednesday, Championship club Dundee FC belatedly voted in favour of an SPFL resolution, taking the percentage of votes over the required threshold.
It meant that Dundee United, Raith Rovers and Cove Rangers were declared champions of the Championship, League One and League Two respectively. Partick Thistle and Stranraer were also relegated from their divisions.
There will likely be a similar fate for the Scottish Premiership. UEFA rules mean that top divisions cannot be abandoned until April 23rd at the earliest. With Celtic 13 points clear of Rangers, they are set to claim the title for the ninth consecutive season.
"From afar, the SPFL looks an absolute mess, in all honesty," the Rangers manager told the Sky Sports Football Show.
"I'm watching ex-players, pundits, reading media and it's getting absolutely battered from pillar to post for the way it's handled things, certainly in the last couple of days.
"From my point of view, all I ask is for the main leader of the SPFL (Murdoch MacLennan) to show some real leadership in this time.
"I think what he has to do now, because there are so many accusations and doubts and questions about this institution, he needs to allow an independent investigation in the set-up up there, to prove everyone wrong and make sure there is fairness and transparency across the board up there in Scotland.
"There's so many doubts now, certainly looking in over the last few days, it's so confusing up there at the moment.
"The SPFL have said they're open to an internal investigation and I don't really agree with that because you shouldn't be allowed to mark your own homework. If you mark your own homework, you're always going to finish top of the class and there's not going to be any questions asked.
"For me, there needs to be an expert, an investigator, or a forensic investigator, who should come in and look at everything across the board with the SPFL.
"If everything's clean and everything's fair and everything's transparent then all the accusations, all the bad media, all the pundits can't slam the organisation and everyone can move forward in the right direction."
"The SPFL looks an absolute mess"
Rangers boss Steven Gerrard reflects on a controversial few days in Scottish football on the #SkyFootballShowpic.twitter.com/bxOKq0cuVQ— Sky Sports Football (@SkyFootball) April 16, 2020
The passing of the resolution allowed the SPFL to make end-of-season payments to clubs, easing cash flow problems. Gerrard felt that situation forced the hand of many clubs.
"I don't think anyone has got any problems with how the SPFL have gone about it in terms of the vote, it's because everyone feels that everyone has been backed into a corner to give that vote," he said.
"Basically they're saying no money can be given out until you make that vote. So if you're a team in the middle of the league and you're safe from relegation and you're not involved in promotion or play-offs, or to win anything, you're bound to vote 'yes' because you want your money straight away and you might be in financial difficulties.
"So that's not really a fair vote. That's the reason why they've managed to get 81 per cent of the votes.
"The resolution Rangers suggested and a few other clubs backed was, can't they give a certain amount of the money out, so all the worries about financial situations are taken out of the equation and then you can actually give a fair vote across the board."
Pictue credit: MaciejGillert / Shutterstock.com
