Clubs call tune over SFA chief

PETER LAWWELL says the SFA is no longer fit for purpose and needs restructuring. Be in no doubt what this means. Change is coming. And SPFL clubs have the old guard of Alan McRae and Rod Petrie firmly in their sights.

That won’t strike everyone as the kind of far-reaching change that Scottish football needs. Amongst angry men and hipster bloggers, there are calls for a gun-toting chief executive to march up to Hampden’s sixth floor, clear out the blazers and drain the swamp.

That stuff should be seen for what it is. Empty, meaningless codswallop. As pointless as expecting the tail to wag the dog.

The FA’s Martin Glenn wouldn’t try to lay down the law to Manchester United, Manchester City or Chelsea.

Just like the new SFA chief can’t march into an association with a turnover of £33million and start telling Lawwell — with a revenue three times higher — how to run his club.

Football has changed. In Scotland and every other footballing country, the clubs run the show.

The European Club Association represent their interests and UEFA and FIFA are terrified of upsetting them.

Why? Because, the day powerful chairmen say ‘stuff this’ is the day national associations are done for.

Stewart Regan paid a heavy price for failing to keep Scotland’s clubs onside. Before he quit, the SFA had a poisonous relationship with the SPFL.

With Regan no more, some on the SFA board see the chance to change and reform.

They want to create a streamlined governing body which works hand in hand with the SPFL.

They want the SFA to butt out of youth development and hand the cash over to the clubs instead. They want a chief executive they can work with. And, with Regan gone, they now have the votes to make it happen.

Not everyone will think that’s a good thing. It’s now 20 years since the Scottish Premier League came into being. David Murray, Fergus McCann, Jim McLean and Co called it a new dawn for the national game. It was, but not in a good way. In the last two decades, the national team haven’t had a sniff of a major tournament. The league trophy hasn’t left Glasgow. Rangers suffered a cardiac arrest. And fans of smaller clubs barely see the point.

Some pine for the days of pulpit-thumping Park Gardens ayatollahs ruling with a rod of iron. Willie Allan, Ernie Walker and Jim Farry used to hand out fines and bans to clubs like playgroups handing out Wagon Wheels. Until the day the clubs said: ‘Enough’.

Club power hasn’t exactly been a roaring success.

Chairmen and chief executives really should think a bit less about self-interest and a bit more about the greater good. But no one can force them to do anything. They run the show.

The genie is out of the bottle. And it’s not going back in.

SPFL chief executive Neil Doncaster takes orders, finds sponsors and does what he’s told. It might not be a healthy state of affairs — but it is what it is.

And Lawwell’s words last night offered a clear sign that the SFA are heading the same way.

Forget the tired journalistic demands to bin the blazers. Or the cries to tear down Hampden and build a new Jerusalem.

Everyone has an idea about what should happen in the new utopia. Anachronistic, unelected time-servers like McRae and Petrie should be the first to go.

But don’t waste time waiting for Barry Hearn to drive up to Hampden in a JCB. Or praying for Sir Alex Ferguson to roll up his sleeves and sort out the Scottish national team.

The governing body need to deal in reality.

With interim chief executive Andrew McKinlay the latest to quit, they need a stable figure to take over quickly. A chief executive who can provide the tools for the next Scotland manager to work with.

Ian Maxwell of Partick Thistle is an honest broker the big clubs know and trust. Don’t be surprised if he’s the man.

Hamstrung by her ties to Petrie, Leeann Dempster of Hibernian has about as much chance of leading the reform as Joey Barton.

And forget talk of Henry McLeish. If an ex-politician with no commercial experience — who was forced to quit as First Minister after a financial scandal — is the future of Scottish football then thanks but no thanks.

I’m with the dinosaurs.