Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Regan determined to find right person for Scotland
STEWART Regan has revealed the Scottish Football Association will consider several fresh candidates who put themselves f orward f or the Scotland job since Michael O’Neill’s snub.
The SFA chief executive defended the governing body’s approach to finding a manager as he brushed off calls for his resignation.
Regan was speaking as Scotland were drawn in a three-team group with Israel and Albania in the inaugural Uefa Nations League and two days after O’Neill rejected the chance to succeed Gordon Strachan.
The SFA will reconsider their shortlist after taking more than two months to agree a compensation package with the Irish Football Association to allow talks with O’Neill to take place.
The £500,000 figure had been stipulated in O’Neill’s contract but Regan claimed the SFA board had to think carefully before committing. O’Neill was offered an improved contract by the IFA in the intervening period and is set to sign a six-year deal.
Regan said: “There was a compensation package to be put together. The package we put together was very, very competitive, a significant investment from the Scottish FA, and that took time for our board to get comfortable with. We had said at the outset when Gordon Strachan left that we were in no rush. We don’t have a competitive match until September.”
Regan insisted the SFA board had been fully involved in the process and the recruitment sub-committee would discuss its plan B.
“I’m not the first chief exec, and I certainly won’t be the last, not to get the target that I go after,” Regan added.
“We’re determined to find the right person.”