COLIN DAVIDSON is one of the most influential men in Scottish football - even though he's not a manager, a player or an administrator.

COLIN DAVIDSON is one of the most influential men in Scottish football - even though he's not a manager, a player or an administrator.

Colin is head of production at Setanta Sports - the Dublin broadcaster which has just kicked off another hectic season covering 60 live games in Scotland's top league.

Setanta is now in the third season of a £54.5 million, four-season contract to cover live SPL games. In two years' time, however, the deal will make way for the biggest commercial agreement ever struck in the Scottish game.

Worth £125m over four years, the new four-year agreement, which starts in August 2010, has made the Scottish Premier League and its chairman Lex Gold very happy.

All the clubs will benefit financially and the less glamorous SPL clubs - those outside the small elite - can expect something of a windfall.

This and Sky Sports' controversial £60m deal to screen Scotland's home games underlines the potential of the country's national sport.

But the Setanta deal is also a reminder that in just four years the broadcaster has emerged from virtually nowhere to become a force in the Scottish game. When it first set foot north of the border four years ago, many were sceptical about its impact.

Colin said: "When Setanta was awarded the SPL contract, there was a sharp intake of breath across the board, both within football and within broadcasting because the company just hadn't done it."

"Everyone was asking at the time, What are they going to do? How are they going to do it?' "There was an element of gamble on the SPL's part. Financially there was no problem but they were really stepping into the unknown with a company who had never made a programme in the UK before.

"But to be fair to Setanta they put their money where their mouth was - investing in people who knew how to do that."

Colin was lured from his job at Sky Sports to join the fledgeling Scottish operation - but was not overwhelmed by the scale of the operation when he first arrived.

"I remember when we walked into an empty office at Cowcaddens, where Setanta was based at the time. It had second-hand furniture that we were renting from STV and there were times we thought this is never going to happen'.

"From that day four years ago, June 1, we had six weeks to our first live broadcast. And we did it.

"There were all sorts of bombs being thrown at us - Nobody wants to work for you, you're upstarts, you're not going to emulate Sky,' but we proved them wrong."

He'd experienced the same taunts years earlier at Sky Sports, when it was trying to establish a foothold in an English game dominated by the BBC and ITV.

Colin said: "The old accepted duopoly was there and it was almost as if you weren't allowed to challenge it.

"Sky were the upstarts and believed you didn't have to wait until 11.30 at night for highlights of one game - they gave the fans the live game as it happened. We took the BBC and ITV out of the comfort zone they'd been in for decades and dragged them kicking and screaming into a new way of covering sports. Sky is now the sporting establishment, the benchmark - and we're not that far behind.

"From a standing start four years ago our progress can be held up to Sky's very easily."

The firm's secret, he says, has been to pay fortunes both for sports rights and on production.

"To be a successful sports broadcaster, that's the only way you can go. I have to take my hat off to the guys who run Setanta.

"Year on year they have shown they are prepared to do this and have proved a lot of people wrong along the way."

Setanta has already covered two SPL games this season - Rangers' opener at Falkirk on Saturday and yesterday's Celtic-St Mirren game - and tonight will screen newcomers Hamilton's debut against Dundee United.

Each game this season needs an average of 120 Setanta personnel - commentators, producers, camera and sound crew, autocue operators, vision mixers, riggers, drivers and catering staff.

The on-screen team includes presenter Rob MacLean, former Celtic hero John Hartson and ex-Rangers captain Terry Butcher.

Setanta's SPL games are widely viewed abroad, from America and Australia. Japan takes every Celtic game, thanks to the presence of Shunsuke Nakamura, and Old Firm televised games can be beamed to between 70 and 80 countries.

Colin said: "It would scare the life out of you if you counted up every person who watched our coverage of Celtic against Rangers."