New Scotland manager must prioritise making headway in inaugural Uefa Nations League
Whoever is installed as the next Scotland manager – and David Moyes is still favourite with most bookmakers – his priority will be making headway in the inaugural Uefa Nations League, according to SFA chief executive Stewart Regan.
The format of the tournament is abstruse but it feeds into the next European Championship, for which Hampden Park will be a host venue, hence its importance – especially after Scotland’s failure to make the World Cup play-offs.
“There are Euro 2020 places linked to the Nations League and each of the four leagues, and Scotland are top seeds in Group C, the third tier,” said Regan. “One team from that third tier will come through to Euro 2020.
“We’ve got two chances, so those Nations games will be really important. We won’t go into them thinking they are friendly matches. They are absolutely essential for us to have a second chance of making the tournament.
“We’re entering an interesting phase, starting in 2018, because of the new competition formats and the way that the Nations League works, followed by the qualifiers, followed by the Nations League.
“It potentially produces a situation when you’ll have feast and famine years. In the Nations League we’ll be playing matches on friendly dates in a new competitive format against teams of a similar standard. The potential is the attendances might not be as great as they would be if you were playing a glamour side like Germany or Spain, or one of the big six.
“That’s got the potential to have an impact on revenue streams. In terms of the most recent times, it would have been great to do a Wales or a Northern Ireland. I think in Wales’ case they brought in €18 million from reaching the semi-finals of the Euros.
“Probably half of that in the case of Northern Ireland. But we are where we are and have our own resources, supplemented by income from Fifa and Uefa, as well as the public sector. We do what we feel is the right thing to develop the game within that.”
The SFA board was the target for critical – and sometimes abusive – comment on social media for their decision to appoint Malky MacKay as interim manager for the visit of the Netherlands for a friendly at Pittodrie on November 9. MacKay, was involved in email exchanges, some of which contained racist, misogynist and homophobic comments, with the director of recruitment at Cardiff when both men were employed by the club.
After apologising for his behaviour and attending diversity and inclusion classes, MacKay was appointed as the SFA’s performance director. Of MacKay’s duties next month, Regan said: “It’s about Malky’s experience as a football manager and asking him to step up on an exceptional basis to lead the team for a friendly.
“We wanted someone who could manage a group of players and he knows a lot of them already. It’s simply a case of using the resources we have to take the team for a friendly match.
“Malky’s our performance director and has one of the most senior roles within the organisation. He’s been a breath of fresh air since coming to the Scottish FA. He’s very well respected and gets on well with the clubs, from academy to chief executive and chairman level. He’s been a fantastic recruit.”
The league season resumed after the international break with Celtic bidding for a 59th successive domestic fixture unbeaten when they hosted Dundee. Brendan Rodgers made several changes to his regular line-up, with Dorus De Vries making his first appearance in goal this season, and appearances for Cristian Gamboa and Eboue Kouassi.
The personnel switches seemed to blunt Celtic’s customary incisiveness, with only a curling effort from Callum McGregor, which went wide of the far post, plus a drive by Scott Sinclair into the arms of Scott Bain to show for their work. Dundee, though, could not take advantage of the Hoops’ muted threat and De Vries dealt with the single alarm in his box with a comfortable clutch from a shot from A-Jay Leitch-Smith.
De Vries earned his corn with two superlative saves from powerful close-range efforts by Paul McGowan and Roary Deacon midway through the second half, by which point Celtic had taken the lead through a low, swirling finish from Olivier Ntcham.
Aberdeen, meanwhile, stayed level on points with the leaders with a victory over Hibernian in an absorbing contest at Easter Road, where Gary Mackay-Steven settled the issue with his first league goal of the season for the Dons.
Elsewhere, Motherwell beat Hamilton 2-1 in the Lanarkshire derby, as did Hearts against Ross County in Dingwall and Partick Thistle went bottom in a 2-0 defeat by Kilmarnock at the Energy Check Stadium.
