In November 2020 the SFA addressed a £4.5million cash shortfall by handing notices of redundancy to 18 members of staff.
Five years later the governing body have money pouring down the steps of Hampden. The fruits of Scotland’s back to back participation at two major European tournaments can’t be overstated and taps into a growing debate over Steve Clarke’s future as Scotland manager.
Nothing silences dissent at a football AGM quite like a ringing cash till. Announcing a record turnover of £78.72million and a pre-tax profit of £7.41m to member clubs at yesterday’s Hampden gathering Chief Executive Ian Maxwell was blunt.
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Reaching major tournaments is critical. And, if Scotland’s quest to reach next summer’s World Cup Finals gets off to a stuttering start against Denmark and Belarus the focus of the debate surrounding the manager will switch from whether the SFA can afford to sack Steve Clarke to whether they can afford to keep him.
Underlining the importance of major tournaments, Maxwell said: “You can't underestimate it. Any sporting organisation, any football club, any football association, a lot of the revenue that's driven comes from success on the pitch. That also manifests in people wanting to play, people wanting to engage with football.
“The feel-good factor that everybody still talks about from Germany is a huge part of that. We need to make sure that we keep qualifying both from a men's and a women's perspective. They're both vital.
“We've also been able to secure significant funding from the UK Government through DCMS and the Scottish Government for extra time programmes, which all goes back out either to facilities or to clubs to help run programmes and help grow and develop the game and use the power of football to have that positive impact on individuals that we know that it can.
“There's a lot of things that have combined to give us the 2024 that we had. Qualification is a big part of that.”
It’s better, sometimes, to travel than it is to arrive. While Scotland’s men’s team raced to Germany in jig-time, the engine stalled as soon as they reached their destination. Performances at Euro 2024 were anti-climactic, the final game against Hungary draining much of the credit Clarke stored up in the bank.
While the team rallied for the Nations League a dismal League A play-off defeat to Greece at Hampden rendered the prospect of a World Cup qualifying rematch against the same opponents unappealing. A Scotland manager who deserves credit for raising expectations and standards over the last six years might now become a victim of his own success. In defence of Clarke Maxwell flagged up how difficult it is to be a manager in Scottish football these days.
“We've seen three managers be appointed in Scottish football in the last two or three weeks, and none of the three of them have been met with great happiness from the relevant supporters. For whatever reason people are always looking at the negatives, and I've said this for as long as I've been doing this job, we need to take a much broader view.
“When you look at the World Cup for Steve, it's the missing bit of the jigsaw, it's the bit that he's not been able to do.
“You get the back-to-back Euros, Nations League C, Nations League B, Nations League A, unfortunately we came back down to B, but in the grand scheme of things, in the football ecosystem, that's probably where we are round about that level, and there's nothing wrong with that.
“Everybody has to be somewhere, so when you look at it over a piece, the progression's been great, he's desperate to get there, the players are desperate to get there, they are absolutely more than capable of getting there, and it's about getting everybody behind them to make sure that we do that.”
Weakness in key positions doesn’t help. When Ciaran Slicker, Ipswich Town’s third choice keeper, took to the field against Iceland his nerves spread quickly around the stadium. At the age of 42 Craig Gordon can’t go on forever, while the alternative options are unappealing. A lack of central defenders, left sided attackers and strikers has shone a light on Scotland’s faltering system of player development.
From next week clubs in the SPFL will be free to enter into cooperation agreements which allow teams in the Premiership and Championship to send players in the 16-21 age group out in search of first team action at a partner club, with more freedom and flexibility.
Figures show that young Scottish players are finding it increasingly difficult to secure first team minutes in the top flight and the consequences for the national football team are difficult to deny.
“The Transition Report talked about league size and the perception over here that young kids don't play because of league size, but actually when you look across Europe, there's a lot of kids playing in a lot of leagues that are similar sizes to us, so it's about clubs having that belief and that ability in younger players.
“Lennon Miller's a shining example, I don't know how many games he's played for Motherwell, but it's a significant number at a really young age, and he goes into a Liechtenstein game and looks like the best player on the park.
“Now, without being disrespectful to Liechtenstein, there's the opposition level that he's playing against, and I don't for a minute think that that means he's ready to go and play against Denmark, but he's a lot closer than a lot would have been, and that's a testament to him, and his family and the way they've mapped out his career just to get him games.
“And the more of those types of experiences, the more of those players we can get at those ages, that amount of experience will be really positive.”
