NEW SFA CHIEF MAXWELL KNOWS THE HAMPDEN NOW

THERE they were, bowling into Glasgow Airport in their hoodies and shorts, every bit the Young Team heading off to Benidorm.

The kind of crowd who, had they boarded your flight to the Costa Blanca, might have had you thinking ‘Oh, we’re going to get diverted to Cardiff because of a mid-air incident’ rather than ‘Oh, there’s the Scottish international football team’.

Yet, the mildly chaotic departure for Peru of a host of players in midweek — no SFA apparel, nada — kind of summed up the nature of this ill-conceived tour of the Americas.

We’ve had six withdrawals from a threadbare squad, the SFA trying to call up MLS players whose clubs have games on, sports science demolishing hopes of recovery between fixtures — and we’ve not even played our role as lambs to the slaughter in Lima and Mexico City yet.

Although hardly his fault, it is a sobering start to the reign of new SFA chief executive Ian Maxwell, who was reminded at his coronation that he previously branded Project Brave, the flagship youth football policy, a waste of resources focusing on the wrong age groups.

He has a board member, Gary Hughes, accused of denigrating Rangers fans amid tit-for-tat Old Firm squabbling that is not going to stop any time soon.

Sponsors and broadcast deals need sorted. As does Hampden. An organisation keen to appear progressive has the old national team manager, Alex McLeish, battling to win over doubters, having been parachuted back into the job in questionable circumstances.

It has also just recruited 61-year-old Billy Stark, another ex-employee, as a youth coach, while the likes of Rod Petrie and Alan McRae hang on for grim death at the top.

If nothing else, this week has highlighted one thing. The SFA has a serious image problem. And Maxwell has to show he has the teeth and nous to do something about it.