Keith Harris quit as Football League chairman after what he described as "a six-month nightmare".

Speaking to Radio Five Live after he and chief executive David Burns resigned from their posts, Harris insisted the ITV Digital fiasco was down to other people's errors.

Harris said: "Let's face it, the mistakes were other people's, really strongly other people's.

"What we tried to do is clear up other people's mess. When you haven't been the one creating the mess that's quite tricky."

Harris added that in quitting, former chief executive Burns said: "Keith, just think, you've given the asylum back to the lunatics."

Harris and Burns paid the price for discontent among League club chairman at the handling of the legal battle with ITV Digital's parent companies Carlton and Granada, and the new deal struck with BSkyB.

But Harris defended the action taken in the legal battle with the television companies.

He said: "Had we taken a different stance in trying to solve the ITV Digital problem then we would have been flattened.

"They are seriously experienced, tough negotiators and what they knew all along was the strength of their legal case.

"What we didn't discover - because you don't under the law until you actually get the discovery from the legal process - were the flaws in our case.

Harris added: "The personal villification verged on the indecent.

"It's one thing being capable of taking criticism, as we should be. We were in the firing line, we had high-profile jobs in a game that touches just about everyone you can think of in the country.

"I feel a mixture of regret, because the job I came to do is two years in and it had more than one year to run.

"I feel a little bit relieved personally because it means I can get on with my other business life and my other interests.

Harris said his departure was "tinged with regret.

"The reforms that desperately need to happen, both in the structure of the League board and the composition of the Football League's three divisions, will not happen under my control."