THE much-anticipated birth of the Scottish Professional Football League descended into an absurdly painful labour as SPL and SFL clubs bickered for 15 hours late into the night before finally delivering the new, single governing body.

What had been expected to be a relatively simple rubber-stamping of decisions taken by the lower league clubs on June 12 – to end the 123-year-old SFL and get into bed with the SPL for a new start – turned a day of exasperating meetings, briefings, adjournments, conspiratorial conversations in corridors and various club representatives shuttling from one room to another or leaving Hampden altogether only to return hours later for more of the same.

The problem was the view among second and third division clubs that they were being asked to sign up to a deal without the SPL having provided all the financial information they had been waiting for since May. They felt the SPL had been deliberately withholding key contractual and financial details which prevented them from performing the due diligence necessary to commit to the SPFL. "If there's any black hole in the SFL figures it isn't a disaster for us; but if there's a black hole found in the SPL's figures it would be a game-changer," said one club representative.

The SPL denied withholding any information, but SFL representatives were scathing about being made to wait for hours yesterday to get information that they could have had weeks ago. Only when lawyers had satisfied the SFL representatives on all their points of concern could the new body be formally created, after 11pm. And only then could the SFL clubs resign their memberships and apply to – and be accepted by – the SPL, which will be reconstituted as the SPFL for all 42 clubs. And only after all of that could nominations be considered for the new nine-man SPFL board.

Eventually, just short of midnight, it was confirmed that the six club reps elected to the board were Celtic's Eric Riley, Duncan Fraser of Aberdeen, Dundee United's Stephen Thompson, Les Gray of Hamilton Academical, Alloa Athletic's Mike Mulraney and Bill Darroch of Stenhousemuir. They will be joined by a chairman – tipped to be Ralph Topping, who holds the role with the SPL – one non-executive director and a chief executive, likely to be the SPL's Neil Doncaster.

At more than one point during a fraught day of talks, there were even suggestions that the 20 clubs in the bottom two divisions may pull the plug on the whole thing, finding it impossible to risk the financial stability of their own clubs without due diligence being performed. There were counter-threats that the current first division clubs would react by splitting to join with the top flight in a newly-created SPL 2. There were murmurings, too, that some of what had been agreed to by the lower-league clubs on June 12 had been subtly altered: until it was changed back, they would not agree. The SPL again denied withholding any information.

And so the talks went on and on, inching towards a settlement. The SPL and SFL boards met separately, then informed their member clubs, then the boards met again to seek more information from the SPL lawyers. All 42 clubs were due to gather again at 7pm, but many of their representatives stood around until being called in just before 10pm. If it was a revolution, it was done at a glacial pace.

Henry McClelland, the Annan Athletic chairman and a consistent critic of the fact lower-league clubs weren't being given many time to consider the full implications of creating the SPFL, had earlier spoken up for the disenfranchised. "The responsibility lies with the SFL board to ensure that the appropriate due diligence is taking place and they are satisfied. The board this morning made it clear they were dissatisfied with the level of due diligence and they put that to the SPL.

"This is absolutely crazy that today, when everything was meant to be signed off, they have finally agreed to open their books. They are opening the books to the SFL people to try to get some kind of sanity on the due diligence exercise that would give our board comfort to sign everything off, and allow the clubs to resign from the SFL and complete our applications to join the SPFL. I feel sorry for the fans because this just comes across as an absolute shambles and a mess. To be perfectly blunt, it is. It should never have got to this state."

What they were all attempting to reach full agreement on, of course, was the delivery of four new divisions to be called The Premiership, The Championship, League One and League Two, all constituted under the one governing body called the SPFL. A new financial distribution model and the introduction of play-offs for the top flight were the key selling points.

After 15 years apart, the SPL and the SFL were never going to be fully reconciled without tension, of course. The day began with a group of angry Kilmarnock supporters planting themselves on the Hampden front steps to protest against their club's chairman, Michael Johnston.

In the middle of the morning, David Longmuir, the SFL chief executive, gave a two-fingered gesture to the assembled media: a Churchillian v-for-victory. He must have had "15 hours" in the office sweepstake over how long talks would last.

Topping, the SPL chairman, came into a meeting with the SFL clubs and tried to convince them, although his tone with them did little to win over those who have been convinced this "merger" was actually an orchestrated takeover by the SPL.

The ideal of a single league body had been championed for years. The anxiety, distrust and regret of trying to deliver it was evident all through yesterday, into talks which limped on beyond midnight.