Regan is the product of a broken system in need of a fix

THE ONE item topping the agenda at Hampden tomorrow, of course, will be the future of Stewart Regan. The scene is set, then, for SFA board members to harrumph and grumble like true amateurs — in the best possible sense of the word — about the failings of the chief executive in his bid to find a new Scotland boss. This column has been consistent in one view over the years. The SFA chief executive is never solely to blame for anything that goes wrong within the national association. Despite repeated revamps and wellmeaning trimming of the blazeratti, the decision-making structure at Hampden still leans heavily on office bearers. Club men who represent the members, they’re a necessary bulwark against the executive taking decisions without considering the impact on — in particular but not exclusively — the professional and semi-pro game. The problem? The guys rising to the top tend, with the odd noble exception, to be masters in biding time, schmoozing incumbents and refusing to rock the boat. If you were given a blank sheet and asked to design the SFA from scratch, maybe you’d come up with exactly the same blueprint. Democracy, after all, is the least bad system we have. But years of bad practice makes a convincing case for changing the whole system of running our national game. With the chief executive — Regan or AN Other — given a free hand to operate, leeway to make decisions… and no excuses when it goes wrong.