Scottish Football Association chief executive Stewart Regan wants an end to the backbiting that has dogged the game this year and for focus to return to reconstruction.
Rangers' demise and the subsequent placing of Charles Green's newco into the Irn-Bru Third Division this summer provoked unprecedented animosity and acrimony.
Regan found himself at the centre of much criticism, with Rangers boss Ally McCoist saying last week, after the relaunched Govan club had been granted conditional SFA membership: "In recent days, I have been in a number of meetings with Stewart Regan, Rod Petrie and other senior SFA figures - and despair at the lack of leadership shown."
Green did little to ease the ill-feeling swirling around the game when, before Sunday's Ramsdens Cup extra-time win over Brechin at Glebe Park, the Rangers chief executive suggested that the reason the Ibrox club were denied entry into the Scottish Premier League was due to bigotry and jealousy.
The SFA's compliance officer, Vincent Lunny, has written to Green asking him to explain his comments.
In a statement released to Press Association Sport, Regan, who was handed a vote of confidence by the SFA board, said: "Comments in recent weeks have been undignified and irresponsible but it is important we now look ahead and focus our attention on football.
"It has been a challenging summer and one that we all have learned from.
"But we are where we are and the Scottish FA as a governing body now has the responsibility to unite everyone in Scottish football - league bodies, clubs, supporters - and help take the game forward.
"We need to restore faith and trust among the three bodies and we are committed to reconstruction and a solution in the best interests of all 42 senior clubs and those who are inspired to join senior football.
"Of course it has been challenging for the Scottish FA and myself but it is important to emphasise the facts behind the popular misconception.
"The Five-way agreement was exactly that. The Scottish FA played the role of peacekeeper between the SPL and the SFL along with Rangers oldco and Rangers newco.
"Those discussions culminated in a presentation to all member clubs and the outcome was Rangers being accommodated in Division Three.
"Throughout the process the Scottish FA's only priority was to look after the best interests of the whole of the game and to ensure 42 clubs did not suffer in the circumstances that affected one club."
The statement continued: "We must now look forward and we all have an obligation to promote the national game.
"The season is under way and it is time to focus our efforts on the success of our clubs in Europe, our clubs domestically and that we all get behind Craig Levein and his squad ahead of the World Cup 2014 qualifiers.
"Later this month the Scottish FA will demonstrate its commitment to elite talent development with the first intake of young players into our seven regional performance schools and I also chair the working group tasked with a feasibility study into a national performance centre.
"We are committed to improving Scottish football at all levels and require the support and commitment of everyone else with the future success of Scottish football at heart to get behind us."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article