Arbroath chairman John Christison felt “sick” during the SFL annual meeting which sounded the death knell of the football organisation.
However, as painful as the Hampden decision was, he said it was the correct course of action to take.
Christison said: “I can’t say I’m happy. I actually felt quite sick at one stage to think that after all these years that’s the demise of the Scottish Football League.
“But we had no option at the end of the day and it probably was the right way to go.”
At Wednesday’s meeting at Hampden, 23 out of 29 SFL clubs one more than required voted for the reconstruction plans. Rangers did not get a vote as they are associate members having joined last summer.
The vote took place with the ever-present threat of a breakaway by the First Division clubs to make an SPL 2 hanging over the Second and Third Division clubs.
East Stirling were one of the clubs who voted against the plans which effectively brought an end to the SFL after 123 years.
Shire secretary Tadek Kopszywa believes “fear of the unknown” drove clubs to vote through the proposals.
He said: “I can’t talk for other clubs but my view is that some clubs perhaps voted out of the fear of the unknown in terms of the two options that were presented to us.
“One was that we join the 42-club organisation and effectively become members of the SPL, and the other was that the SFL stays at is with the potential threat that the 10 First Division clubs would then join the SPL, leaving a rump 20.
“I feel that some of the Second and Third Division clubs felt that the rump 20 wasn’t worthwhile and viable. I can understand why they said that.
“From our perspective, we were quite happy to go with the rump 20 SFL clubs, we could cut our cloth accordingly.
“When we looked at the package that was on the offer, we felt that it didn’t merit disbanding the complete organisation.
“We are not talking about reforming the leagues, altering the structure of the top division, altering the structures of how many teams are in each league.
“We are talking about a rule book which was cut and pasted between two organisations rather than starting with a clean sheet of paper.
“So why do we need to go this far and abandon 123 years of history just so the SPL can have play-offs with the First Division?”