The strength of feeling in the party was highlighted on Sunday when 20 current and former Tory constituency association chairmen delivered a letter to No 10 warning that the bill would inflict "significant damage" to the party in the runup to the next election.
This, warn the old Tory chairmen of the shires, is "shaking the very foundations of the party".
Although the league chairmen agreed to the proposal, and each club knew the situation at the start of the campaign, it didn't stop the complaints as the first end of season nail-biters commenced in May 1987.
Jim Murray, the chairmen of the judges, described it as a "wake-up call" for the Scotch industry.
There's plenty of scope for compromise on some key issues – on independent chairmen, firewalls against industry interference, editors on the commission, etc – if everyone would stop shouting for a moment.
But the 27 SFL chairmen eligible to vote turned down the obvious financial benefits to instead welcome Gretna back to Scottish football for the first time since 1947.
But the chairmen decided that to allow Airdrie United to emerge from the blackened ashes of Airdrieonians would be setting a dangerous precedent that might see cash-strapped football clubs disappear only to reappear under a different guise.
"Obviously I won't roll over, but the company chairmen don't need persuading anymore".
Scottish Football League secretary Peter Donald has admitted that the murky recent past of Airdrieoneans was the major reason why would-be replacement Airdrie United was strangled at birth by rival chairmen.
He said: "I am adamant that Airdrie had more to offer Scottish Football than our rivals, but the Scottish League chairmen thought otherwise - and I have to accept that".
"Chairmen at football clubs pay lip service to supporters, they aren't interested," he says.
