George Peat says he has sympathy for Stewart Regan, saying the Scottish FA chief executive is trying to be as honest as possible to outline the potential future of the game.
Regan has been criticised by SFL clubs for saying the Scottish game needed a newco Rangers to be allowed to start life in the First Division, warning it faced a “slow, lingering death” with claims of financial losses of £15.7m per year.
Pressure was also turned up on the chief executive after a number of SFL representatives accused him of saying his organisation would block Rangers from being voted straight back into the SPL, something Regan denied.
Peat, who was president of the Scottish FA when Regan was appointed, insists his former colleague is right to speak out.
"I believe Stewart has been unfairly criticised," Peat told Press Association Sport. "Someone has to take the lead and that's what he did.
"He has to try to act as a go-between, between the SPL and SFL.
"He is not going to please everybody. All he has done is to spell out the road the game could go down and what will happen.
"Perhaps it didn't make good reading for some but in all of it, somebody has to explain the facts of the situation, whether they are pretty or not.
"He might have gone too far in some people's eyes but this is a situation that has far-reaching consequences for the game and sometimes you have to speak your mind and confront the brutal reality.
"SFL clubs have been put in an invidious position. It is the SFL clubs who are suffering and they feel they have had the problem dumped on them.
"The clubs are never all going to agree but what is important right now is that people look at what is right for the long-term future of Scottish football.
"I hope there will be an amicable agreement but nobody knows what deal the SPL have offered the SFL.
"Voting [rights], how much money, how much of it will reach the Third Division, these are questions that have to be answered and we won't find out until Friday."
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