Dundee FC chief executive Scot Gardiner this week revealed how the club came within 35 minutes of making a huge blunder that could have scuppered their SPL dream.
As the news that the Dark Blues will be in Scottish football’s top flight for the new season began to sink in at Dens Park, Gardiner recalled a dramatic last-gasp dash to Hampden Park to deliver the papers saying they were ready to be considered for promotion back on March 31.
The hero of the hour was a player now working as a fireman, striker Graham Bayne, who drove through to Glasgow to push the documentation through the letterbox personally.
Bayne made it by 4.25pm just 35 minutes before close of business on the final day available to say that should Dundee become a candidate club then they fitted all the criteria demanded by the SPL.
Fast forward to Monday and, with the paperwork safely on file, the SPL finally contacted the Dark Blues to say they would be formally invited into the league in time for the start of the new season on August 4.
It cost Dundee approximately £5,000 to do so but with a dramatic promotion now theirs to savour that will turn out to be a fabulous investment.
”We got the application in at 4.25pm just before the SPL closed their doors,” said Gardiner. ”If we hadn’t got it in I really don’t know what would have happened.
”Dunfermline and Falkirk were also after the Club 12 position so it was imperative. It cost us less than £5,000 but that’s still a lot of money to our club.
”So we took an educated gamble and here we are today. It might turn out to be the best £5,000 we have ever spent.
”It was a really difficult week as we had to put in an application to join the SPL by March 31. I even asked the SPL if it was worth our while doing this because we were so many points behind Ross County in the First Division.
”Various people within the club were saying it was going to cost this amount of money and it specifically said in the application form that it was just in relation to being the candidate club and winning the league.”
Gardiner and the Dundee board have been handsomely rewarded for the dignified way they handled being in the midst of one of arguably the greatest storm to have hit Scottish footall.
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They kept their own counsel while quietly planning for both eventualities a move up to the top league or another year in the First Division.
”It is the news we were hoping for although it is not the way we were hoping to feature in the SPL,” he said. ”We wanted to go up as champions but since the situation unravelled with Rangers we wanted to make sure it was us taking the Club 12 position.
”We felt it was an open and shut case all along on the grounds of sporting merit but it has been intolerable at times. Now we can hopefully just concentrate on football from now on and get ready for the new SPL season.
”We have been working on all aspects of Plan A (Division One) and Plan B (SPL) with regards to signing targets. But we weren’t able to properly commit because we couldn’t risk signing anyone for the SPL if we weren’t going to get in there.”
While Dundee can now look ahead to SPL action, Gardiner admitted the process had taken its toll on everyone at the club.
”It has all been absolutely exhausting,” he said. ”I couldn’t tell you how many late nights we have spent on this. There have been all sorts of things to work on.
”Honestly, things have changed from the morning, to the afternoon to the evening. That has been the case every day for at least the last two weeks and probably longer.
”There have been twists all over the place, with rumour after rumour of this and that meant to be happening. Even up to this morning we have have speculation about who was going into Hampden for the SPL meeting.
”I only came into the job towards the end of January and it was the 14th of February that Rangers went into administration. The whole aim was to set up the club and steady the ship but no one knew this was going to happen. So it has been unbelievable.”
Meanwhile, Gardiner believes another SPL club should be rubbing their hands in anticipation of a bumper crowd for the SPL curtain-raiser on August 4.
”The Kilmarnock game will be a bit special now,” said Gardiner. ”They will see an amazing Dundee support that day. The fans have been fantastic over the last few years but can you imagine how they will be on the first Saturday of the SPL.
”They will be going down the road in their Club 12 T-shirts and having a rare old time.”