YOGI BERRA, the former baseball player and occasional inadvertent philosopher, is credited with the phrase that "it's tough to make predictions, especially about the future".

It is a school of thought to which Neil Doncaster clearly also subscribes. The new Scottish Premier League season is less than three weeks away. We now know which 12 clubs will be participating in the new campaign – assuming the transfer of Ranger's oldco share to Dundee passes off without a hitch – but so many other imponderables remain.

Most centre on the SPL's commercial partners and whether they will continue their financial commitment to a league that has lost its unique selling point, the four matches each season between Celtic and Rangers. Weatherseal last night became the first SPL sponsor to affirm their support to the league but uncertainty remains over the rest, in particular Sky and ESPN whose £16m a year contract is vital to the wellbeing of many clubs. Doncaster plans to meet with all the SPL's sponsors in the coming weeks but, when it came to either assuaging his concerned clubs about the future or laying down a doomsday warning similar to Stewart Regan, the Scottish Football Association's chief executive, the Englishman instead elected to take the Doris Day approach that whatever will be, will be.

"You are asking me to make a prediction but I am not going to do that," he said. "At a point when it becomes a financial reality for clubs then we will announce it.You know I'm not going to be drawn on the future."

Whether the SPL, then, is in a better or worse state than the apocalyptic vision revealed by Regan last week is anyone's guess. Perhaps Doncaster himself is still unsure, with Sky waiting to see how the whole thing plays out. "We are in a challenging situation," he added with typical understatement. "People will be working very extensively in the weeks leading up to the new season to bring clarity, particularly on the finances, for the benefit of the clubs. It is vital that clubs have clarity and it's our job to provide that."

Events of the past few weeks and months have been particularly damaging to the SPL brand. Having one of its biggest clubs go into administration and then liquidation was an embarrassment that was compounded by allegations that the governing body, along with the SFA, tried to railroad the Scottish Football League clubs into voting Rangers into the first division, an accusation Doncaster denied.

"I appeared before the SFL clubs and I spelled out the possible financial consequences of different decisions they might take, but ultimately the decision was theirs," he added. "There was no undue pressure as far as I was concerned. I did not talk to them on Friday when they made their decision. There has been nothing underhand. There has been good dialogue between the three governing bodies to come up with a solution which works for the good of the Scottish game. Ultimately, the clubs then decide."

Doncaster insisted the attempt to parachute Rangers into the first division was all above board. "I think there is a slight misapprehension about the rules here. People are saying the rules demanded Rangers had to go the Division 3, that's not the case at all here.

"Ultimately the rules would have allowed Rangers to come into the SPL, would have allowed Rangers newco to come into Division 1 or Division 3 or the South of Scotland League. So all of those are possibilities and it comes down to the will of the clubs as to what they want and the will of the SFL clubs was Division 3 as expressed on Friday."

While Doncaster remained emotionally neutral about the future, the tone was noticeably more upbeat from several SPL chairmen as they left Hampden yesterday. It stood in stark contrast to some of the doom and gloom that greeted the SFL's decision to place Rangers into the third division on Friday. "Every club has suffered over the past period of time and we are at least now looking to pick up and go forward because we have been going back for a while," was the opinion of Roy MacGregor, the Ross County chairman. "I am the new boy on the block so I am not the best to speak about these things. After today, though, I am really positive."

Stewart Gilmour, the St Mirren chairman, had initially described the SFL vote as "catastrophic" but, in a statement released yesterday, was more optimistic about the future. "Today's SPL AGM was a very productive and encouraging meeting," it read. "We are pleased that the league formations are now clarified which allows all clubs to engage with our commercial partners and lay the foundations for the future of Scottish Football.

"The Board of St Mirren FC will continue to monitor the ongoing position and as further information arrives from the SPL we will make the appropriate decisions for the benefit of St Mirren Football Club. We can now welcome the return to real football starting this Saturday and would encourage all St Mirren supporters to rally behind the Club for the forthcoming season."

Stephen Thompson, the Dundee United chairman, echoed the sentiment. "It was a very positive meeting and it's time for us all to move on from everything we've been through in the last few months. It's a tough world for everybody but we're in an important period for Scottish football and the SPL – we'll need to see what happens in the next couple of weeks. Maybe the prophets of doom are painting too negative a picture. I don't think it will be as bad as that."