ABERDEEN chairman Dave Cormack today revealed that SPFL chief executive Neil Doncaster informed him that 75 per cent of Ladbrokes Premiership clubs had voted in favour of the resolution on the end of the 2019/20 season - 20 minutes before an informal deadline.

The SPFL have been heavily criticised for their handling of the resolution after the decisive “no” vote that Dundee emailed in on Friday last week went missing and the Dens Park club then changed their mind and backed the proposal following talks.

Cormack, the United States-based software entrepreneur who succeeded Stewart Milne in February, endorsed Rangers’ call for an independent investigation into the controversial affair on Sportsound on BBC Radio Scotland this afternoon.

He also admitted that the Pittodrie club had been eager for the resolution to be altered - and the power to call an end to the Premiership campaign be taken away from the board and given to 75 per cent of the top flight clubs instead - in the build-up to the vote.

Cormack confirmed that Aberdeen had voted in favour of it after being given that assurance by Doncaster during a telephone conversation.

However, he also revealed that he was informed by the SPFL chief executive that nine of the 12 top flight clubs had backed the plan – a 75 per cent majority was required for it to pass – shortly before the requested deadline.

“Once we got through the documentation, we reviewed it as a board, we wanted to see a situation where the resolution was passed, but 75 per cent of the 12 Premiership clubs made the decision on ending the football season,” said Cormack.

“We thought that was the right and democratic thing to do. We felt it was important to get a message across that we felt strongly that the decision to call the Premiership should be taken by 75 per cent of the clubs as opposed to giving the board unilateral capability to do so.

“We never voted until 5pm, or just after 5pm actually, so we were very much of the mind that in order to vote ‘yes’ we needed assurances on the democratic majority in the Premiership calling the Premiership itself.

“At 4.40pm, just before the decision, we were effectively told that they had got their nine votes and they didn’t need ours. So at that point in time we made a decision based on an assurance verbally that no decision will be made until the majority of the clubs in the Premiership were on board. That is why we ended up vetting the yes vote.

“In the end, when you are told ‘we’ve got the nine votes out of 12’, in other words ‘we’ve got the vote without you’, we made the decision then to hold the SPFL board accountable for consultation with all of the 12 clubs once it was made.

“Our vote, in a positive and constructive perspective, was to get the 12 clubs into a position where, if we vote yes, we are in the position where we, 75 per cent of us, can make the call on the league being decided.”

The SPFL statement on Wednesday that announced the resolution to end the Championship, League 1 and League 2 immediately and clubs be declared champions and relegated – and the board to have the power to do so in the Premiership at a later date – revealed that it had been agreed by 81 per cent of their 42 members.

Asked who had informed him that 75 per cent of the Premiership clubs had backed the resolution before the requested deadline, Cormack said: “Neil. I didn’t have a problem with that, Neil getting involved.

“Look, Neil didn’t push us either way in the conversations we had. He absolutely understood our position that we wanted the Premiership clubs to decide.

“We were trying to negotiate a written assurance from the SPFL board that that was the case. We have got the assurance that the decision to close the Premiership down now will not be taken without full consultation of the Premiership clubs.

“In defence of Neil, he was taking our request as a club to have the 12 clubs consulted (over the end of the Premiership season). He was basically calling me to say: ‘We are still going to do that, but just be aware we have got the nine votes now’.

“Our vote doesn’t count from there. But we then made a decision to back it based on that assurance and to be seen to be supporting the lower league clubs in their situation.”

Cormack, who has joined Hearts owner Ann Budge in backing Rangers’ call for an independent investigation into the vote, believes it is now vital that the SPFL attempt to repair the damage their reputation has suffered during the process.

“What we have got to think about is what we look like from a fans’ perspective overall,” he said. “Obviously, this isn’t the best position to be in, but it’s happened and we can do better.

“A non-Aberdeen fan got in touch with me and sent me a quote. It’s an 18th century quote from a guy called Edmund Burke. He said: ‘The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing’.

“If that’s the feeling of the fans out there across the board we owe it to ourselves and we owe it to the fans to right the situation and to bring back credibility.”