Maxwell visit to Holyrood was a pointless exercise

GOODNESS me, talk about wasting an hour of your life that you’ll never get back. SFA chief executive Ian Maxwell’s midweek appearance in front of the

Health, Social Care and Sport Committee at Holyrood had about as much meat in it as a quorn sausage.

Forget no presents from Santa. Making Junior watch that would be the ultimate punishment for being naughty this year.

Maxwell (below) attempted to crack a joke about wearing a suit jacket to the meeting rather than being a blazer. Ho ho ho. You could almost hear the wind whistle through the ears of those in the chamber as the tumbleweed bounced off convener Clare

Haughey’s noggin.

In fairness,

Maxwell deserves a bit of credit for keeping calm in the face of some questionable questioning from a collection of MSPs who appeared to have limited knowledge of how professional football works and zero interest in being told.

There was a vaguely interesting moment, though, when Ruth Maguire MSP went off on one about how the Scottish Football Alliance — yeah, me neither — wanted club season ticket holders to appoint the next president of the SFA. Maxwell explained how any club could consult with fans and put anyone they wanted up to stand for president. Sounded nice. Why does it never seem to happen then?

Current SFA president Mike Mulraney served as vice-president and was then elected unopposed. His predecessor Rod Petrie served as vice-president and was then elected unopposed for two terms. Same with Alan McRae before that. And Campbell Ogilvie before him.

That covers the last 15 years or more. We could go further. When Maxwell, whose only previous spell as a CEO ended with Partick Thistle’s relegation, got his current £200,000-a-year job in 2018, he spent his unveiling denying it was a backroom stitch-up.

Doesn’t sound much like a shimmering pinnacle of democracy to me. It makes Holyrood look semi-functional by comparison. And that’s saying something.