ABERDEEN chairman Stewart Milne has admitted Celtic chief executive Peter Lawwell is “very persuasive” – but denied he holds too much power over the other Ladbrokes Premiership clubs and effectively runs Scottish football.

Stewart Gilmour, the former St. Mirren chairman, claimed Lawwell was “pulling the strings” and stated that representatives of the other top flight clubs wouldn’t challenge him when he was a guest on the Sportsound programme on BBC Radio Scotland earlier this month.

However, Milne, whose club take on Celtic in a Premiership match at Parkhead tomorrow evening, has disagreed with Gilmour’s remarks and insisted that every member of the SPFL had “real influence”.

Asked if Lawwell controlled our national game, he replied: “No, Celtic are a big club, Rangers are a big club, we would like to think Aberdeen, Hibs, Hearts and Dundee United are the next tier in the game.

“Peter is an extremely competent guy, he knows how to put forward an argument, he can be very persuasive, but there are a lot of strong individuals around that table as well with equally strong views.

“We all make major contributions and have a real influence as to how the game goes forward, as have all the other clubs.”

Milne, meanwhile, has warned the Premiership clubs must put the greater good of Scottish football ahead of self-interest if the game is flourish in future - and indicated that changing how television money is distributed when the broadcasting deal is renegotiated could be the way ahead.

The millionaire housebuilder was part of an SPFL delegation which travelled to London to meet with representatives of BT Sport, who have a joint deal to broadcast for talks earlier this month.

He revealed he had been impressed by a presentation given by officials of Premiership Rugby, the organisation which runs the Aviva Premiership, the elite rugby union league in England, at the meeting.

The Aviva Premiership severed ties with Sky Sports back in 2012 and signed an exclusive agreement with BT, which was a non-existent network at the time, and then extended that for another six years back in 2015.

The television money is shared evenly between the 12 top flight clubs who all, along with the two biggest second tier outfits, London Irish and Yorkshire Carnegie, own shares in Premiership Rugby.

Having one media partner has enabled the Aviva Premiership to achieve consistent kick-off times at 7.45pm on Friday evening, 3pm on Saturday afternoons and 3pm on Sunday afternoons for televised matches.

Milne said: “We are kidding ourselves if we think we can just continue as we are. We have got to be working hard over the next couple of years to see what the next stage of the development of the Scottish game needs to be.

“How we can more effectively bring on board a media partner and hopefully maybe start to develop a partnership with the Scottish government as well?

“I do genuinely believe there is an opportunity there to shape something up. We spent some time with Premiership Rugby people when we were down with BT. They set up a joint session with them and BT.

“They were able to articulate to us how BT had worked with them to develop the Premiership and some of the things they had been able to introduce there. So, to me, the opportunity is there to shape up a plan. But that might prove to be the easy bit.

“It is then getting everyone to buy into that plan and acknowledge that this is the next stage of the development and have the courage to move the game forward. Hopefully, though, we can bring in a lot more money for everyone so it can filter right down throughout the game.”