Spite. Malice. Distrust.

Scottish football runs on spite, malice and distrust. Always has done. Always will.

I said so on Friday night's Superscoreboard and less than twenty-four hours later we had the beginning of a spat that will take internal division within our game to new heights of acrimony, even by our historically hostile standards.

Nobody likes each other. Nobody trusts each other. We simply wait for new ways to prove that is the case.

As a country is encouraged to come together to combat the effects of a global catastrophe, Scottish football prefers to retreat behind battle lines and gets ready for a spiteful, malicious exhibition of distrust.

Rangers believe the SPFL is unfit for purpose and say they have the evidence to prove it.

The casting vote in favour of, or rejection of, a proposal to end three of our four league forthwith has so far been witheld by Dundee.

And a whistleblower has apparently spilled the beans over concerns about the SPFL's system of governance.

Meanwhile the clock is ticking on how much longer some clubs can survive in times of zero income.

It is our fatal fascination with seeing a bad situation and doing our best to make matters much worse.

Now all we can ask is that the process of deciding who did what, and why, be started as soon as is possible.

Rangers say they have evidence of wrongdoing and will not be bullied into silence.

Very good then.

Release the evidence for public consumption immediately and let the relevant body decide if there is a case to be answered.

Dundee, meanwhile, should play the transparency game and tell everyone how they are voting on the SPFL proposal, because they are under suspicion of having changed their mind for one reason or another.

Clarity would be a great help at this time, thank you very much.

It is going to be difficult for people to attend games once it is medically advisable for football to go about its lawful business once again.

The real world will intervene at that point in the form of rent arrears, mortgage arrears and job losses.

Disposable income will be greatly reduced and football may very well become a luxury item.

Up until then, internecine warfare within the game is not a great look.

And if there is to be an official inquiry into the governing body of the game's work practices then that will further disfigure our reputation in the eyes of the paying customers.

Right now we have an ocean going mess on our hands and the water threatens to become even more choppier.

We all know that self-interest comes with the malice, the spite and the distrust.

But self harm is another problem altogether.

Inevitably we'll get round to the allegation that Celtic's Chief Executive, Peter Lawwell, exerts an excessive level of influence over the running of Scottish football.

Inevitably it will be brought up that the SPFL's chairman, Murdoch McLennan, sits as the non-executive chair of Dublin-based Independent News and Media, part owned by Celtic's principal shareholder, Dermot Desmond.

If mud slinging was on Olympic event we'd have more medals than any country in the world.

If Mastermind had a seat for Scottish Football our specialist subject would be jiggery pokery, 1873 until the present day.

But if it emerges we are not to end this season prematurely does anyone have the foggiest idea what we are to do next as the UK's death toll from the coronavius passes ten thousand lost souls?

And if the calls for the SPFL Chief Executive, Neil Doncaster, to be suspended along with the in-house legal eagle, Rod McKenzie, does that halt the day to day running of the game?

Would it mean funds needed to keep some clubs alive could not be released, even if it was decided to spread the wealth without concluding the season?

Would the shop be temporarily shut, so to speak?

Whatever the protagonists in this internal dispute are going to do, they had better do it quickly.

There's a smell of burning in here.

• superscoreboard