WHO would have thought that Scottish football was awash with so many morally upstanding individuals?

At a time when finances are tighter than ever and with little sign of the picture improving any time soon, the Scottish Football League clubs yesterday elected to follow the lead of their Scottish Premier League colleagues by voting with sporting integrity rather than budgetary concerns at the forefront of their minds. For the second time in a week the message was clear: the right thing had to be done, regardless of the potential consequences.

The argument that Rangers newco should be treated as a special case given their financial might clearly did not wash with the chairmen of the SFL clubs, 25 of whom decided it was only right that any new club – regardless of their origins – has to start at the bottom of the hierarchy and try to work their way up from there.

It went against the pleas of both the Scottish Football Association and the Scottish Premier League, both of whom had warned of dire consequences if Rangers were not voted into the first division, and there was undoubtedly an element of the smaller clubs responding via the voting process to what they felt had been unfair and unnecessary pressure piled upon their shoulders.

"You could say we showed that we were not going to be brow-beaten," said Turnbull Hutton, the outspoken and charismatic Raith Rovers chairman. "I was proud of the SFL. I felt they did remarkably well given all the pressure on the clubs. It has been unrelenting for weeks. Everyone has had their bellyful of threats and pressure, letter, emails and phone calls. It has been never-ending. But the clubs have stood up to that."

The supporters' influence was undoubtedly key to the outcome. Just as fans of the SPL clubs made their voices heard in the 'No to Newco' campaign, then the message was similarly one-sided as the SFL prepared to vote. Clubs rarely pay much attention to their support when it comes to making decisions as mammoth as this one – the chairmen and chief executives are the ones who have to balance the books after all – but on this issue it seems ignoring the fans was not an option.

"I think there will be financial repercussions because of this, but fans have to be listened to," said Stranraer director Iain Dougan. "Supporters all over the country told us this had to be done – Rangers had to be in the third division. Our fans relayed that to us and it was the same with other clubs."

The ramifications of this decision, however, will be felt far and wide. Stewart Regan, chief executive of the SFA, had spoken of the prospect of a number of clubs going into administration if Rangers were not allowed into the first division. It will soon become clear if his projections of financial Armageddon prove accurate and sponsors start withdrawing from the game, or whether he overstated the worst case scenario to try to pressure SFL clubs into doing his bidding. Either way it is difficult to see how he can continue in the job.

He will surely have no appetite to continue in his role if the worst comes to pass and one club after another starts to tumble into the financial abyss, while if those who have accused him of deliberately scaremongering by massaging the figures turn out to be right then it can only lead to his resignation.

"It's not up to me to comment on whether Stewart Regan's position is tenable or not," added Hutton. "But I think there is a lot of bridge building which is going to have to take place. Trust is going to have to be restored. The way relationships are just now, it's going to be difficult."

"Stewart went on about the SFA's position and more or less told us to go for Division One," added John Yorkston, the Dunfermline chairman. "The reaction he got certainly couldn't be shown on telly. There are a lot of folk unhappy with certain individuals and that will all come out in the next few weeks."

The creation of an SPL2, or if the SPL clubs were to perform a dramatic volte face at their annual meeting on Monday to allow Rangers in after all, would only add to that feeling of disharmony, although it was interesting to note that, when asked whether he expected Rangers to start the new season in the third division, David Longmuir, chief executive of the SFL, would say only that "we would be very willing to have them there".

With the season scheduled to start in two weeks, it seems hard to see how any of these drastic changes could be implemented in such a short space of time although stranger things have happened in recent months. "Is there any possibility of the SPL doing a U-turn and inviting Rangers back in? I think everything's possible," was Yorkston's take on it.

The SFA had dangled a number of sweeteners – including league reconstruction and the introduction of play-offs – in front of the SFL clubs earlier in the week in the hope that that would persuade them to vote Rangers into the first division. The hope was that meaningful discussion on these issues would still continue despite yesterday's vote not going as the SFA would have liked.

"We still intend to pursue the other aspects with regard to reconstruction," said Jim Ballantyne, president of the SFL. "If it was regarded for the good of the game yesterday then it should still be for the good of the game tomorrow.

"The fact the SFL clubs have decided it's the third division rather than the first shouldn't make a great deal of difference. We still intend to work with the other bodies to deliver the change that everyone is crying out for."