Regan ‘should have sounded out his target before pursuit’
FOR the chief executive of the SFA, there are three certainties in life. Death, taxes and accusations of bungling negligence.
Stewart Regan is not the first to find himself embroiled in a media onslaught. And predecessor Gordon Smith doubts he will be the last.
‘I once met the late Ernie Walker when I was in the job,’ recalled Smith yesterday. ‘I told him I was getting a bit of stick.’
A maligned secretary of the SFA between 1977 and 1990, Walker hid a wicked sense of humour behind an authoritarian streak.
‘Ernie told me something I’ll never forget,’ added Smith. ‘He said: “I got slaughtered all the time, but wait and see how nice they are about me when I die”.’
Walker’s prediction was accurate. His death at the age of 82 in 2011 brought warm words and anecdotes. In the days when he issued denunciations from the SFA’s old headquarters in Park Gardens like an Iranian Ayatollah, the tributes were rather less touching.
‘It’s the nature of the job,’ said Smith. ‘As the front man of the SFA, you are there to be shot at.
‘You see fan surveys where the SFA are being slaughtered for this or that.
‘The truth is, you could do that survey on any issue at any time in the last 100 years with precisely the same result.
‘The problem is that when things don’t work out — as with the current pursuit of Michael O’Neill — it just confirms what people already think.’
In the last 24 hours, journalists have polarised down the usual lines over Regan; those who enjoy the crumbs from the chief executive’s table and those who don’t. The SFA have always offered an easy target. Yet criticism of the way the O’Neill saga was conducted is surely justified.
The three-month courtship of Northern Ireland’s manager was fine, so long as it offered some prospect of success. But to end a 15-week pursuit empty-handed after placing all their eggs in one basket can now be seen now for what it was — a strategic error.
Humiliating performance director Malky Mackay by ruling him out as an obvious Plan B in November was another.
Allowing O’Neill the time and opportunity to play the Scottish and Irish associations off against each other to secure the best possible deal for his family was surely the biggest of all. To say so is no criticism of O’Neill. Good luck to the guy.
The spotlight falls, instead, on Regan. Whether a series of small errors represent a level of misjudgment worthy of his removal is a matter the seven-man and one-woman SFA board will be forced to address at their monthly meeting next week.
From the start, Regan had a hard time persuading some of his board that O’Neill was worth a £500,000 compensation bill. After going out on a limb, they expected him to close the deal. The news that Northern Ireland’s manager is staying put is a cause of acute embarrassment. If the media gaze widens to incorporate hapless president Alan McRae and vice-president Rod Petrie in the coming days then Regan could find himself straying into dangerous waters.
Expected to speak to journalists at today’s UEFA Nations League draw in Lausanne, he will offer up a legitimate line of defence.
By reaching Euro 2016, the Irish FA secured £9million in revenue. As soon as Scotland made a formal approach, they did everything short of jamming a chair in the door.
Aware he was the SFA’s first — and only — choice, O’Neill used that interest to secure the offer of a contract extension from the IFA worth £750,000 per annum over six years. The SFA were willing to make him the highest-paid Scotland manager in history. But they couldn’t match that.
There was a reluctant willingness to go to £600,000 a year. Now, after dangling that carrot before O’Neill, they can hardly turn around now and offer their second-choice a penny less. From start to finish, the episode has been a catalogue of errors.
Ten years since he was given the task of luring George Burley from Southampton, Smith believes his successor as chief executive made a fundamental error when he made an official approach to the IFA before making sure O’Neill would take the job.
‘We held discussions with an agent of George Burley and told him what the deal would be if he was appointed,’ recalled Smith
‘Only then would we decide if it was right to speak to the club and meet the compensation package.
‘The rationale behind that is to avoid embarrassment. There was no way we were moving for a manager until we knew.
‘That’s why I’m surprised by what has happened here with the pursuit of Michael O’Neill.
‘Surely the SFA had to know whether he intended to take the job before he went along for discussions last week?
‘I feel personally that Michael has been very clever here.
‘I think he knew he was never taking the job and increased his status and negotiating power with the Irish FA. It also gave him status for future club jobs now it’s known the SFA were interested while endearing him greatly to Northern Irish fans who know he turned down a job with Scotland to remain there.
‘The only winner from all this is Michael O’Neill.’
The same can’t be said of Regan. Back to square one with a blank sheet of paper, the SFA will now take time to consider their options ahead of a friendly with Costa Rica in March.
Drawing on his own experience of crisis management, Smith said of the storm engulfing Regan: ‘It is unpleasant. What’s most difficult about it is that you have to front up for decisions and mistakes even when you are not directly responsible. It’s not just Stewart. Others are involved as well.
‘But in the Michael O’Neill pursuit, it looks as if things have not been done properly at executive level.
‘I think fronting up would be a good thing for Stewart to do.
‘He should speak to journalists in Switzerland and offer a transparent explanation for what went wrong.’
As journalists gather in Lausanne to learn Scotland’s UEFA Nations League opponents, the suspicion is he won’t have much choice.