Roger Mitchell is surprised that Scottish football survived Armageddon.
In 2009 broadcaster Setanta pulled the plug on their UK operations leaving the SPL scrambling around for a new partner while the administration then liquidation of Rangers three years later came with dire warnings.
SFA chief Stewart Regan predicted social unrest in the summer of 2012 while Neil Doncaster attempted every move possible to parachute the new Ibrox club into the top flight or First Division of the Scottish Football League.
Reflecting on those issues Mitchell told The Scotsman:
The virus isn’t the first black swan to come his way. There was the collapse of Setanta and then there was the collapse of Rangers. Scottish football should not have survived them going into liquidation but it did. Neil’s still there. He still seems to have the faith of the clubs.
It took the new Ibrox club four years to work their way into the top flight at which point the ‘Old Firm’ circus was bizarrely repackaged.
Every other club made adjustments to those changes but across the board clubs appear to be in a healthier condition with new ownership in place at Aberdeen, Hearts, Hibs, Kilmarnock, Motherwell and Dundee United.
Bank debts have virtually been eliminated, due mainly to the withdrawal of overdraft facilities with almost all clubs living firmly off their self generated income.
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Mitchell was CE of the SPL during the dual contract years when Tore Andre Flo and Ronald de Boer had minimal contracts passed at the same time as Celtic were offering Chris Sutton, Neil Lennon and John Hartson contracts comparable with EPL clubs.