Ian Maxwell admits Scotland's loss to Ukraine has had effects on the continued development of the game as the SFA chief executive opened up on the financial implications of failing to reach the Qatar World Cup.
Maxwell was asked what more could be done to bridge the gap between the men's game and women's game in Scotland after several members of Pedro Martinez-Losa's side expressed their concerns over ticketing at Hampden ahead of a clash with Spain in April.
And he revealed the gut-wrenching financial effects of Scotland's World Cup play off semi final loss to Ukraine earlier this month. Speaking to BBC Sportsound, he said: "The money's similar to the Euros. I think the Euros was 9.5million euros for qualification. I think the World Cup was 9.5million dollars so it's actually probably a little bit less given the exchange rate. We don't lose it because we don't budget for it."
However despite not budgeting for it, Maxwell detailed just what the qualification money would've done to help the game grow in Scotland.
He added: "That money's fundamental in terms of we've got the core structure of our association but what we need to do to grow the game is go and do the bigger and better.
"The Ukraine game was just so disappointing so it took everybody a long time to get over that.
"You think about the knock on's, you think about the impact, you think about the things like 'if we get there we can do...' but we just need to focus on the next one."
Maxwell also reckons criticism aimed at Clarke has been harsh and insists there has been undeniable progress under the former Kilmarnock boss.
He said: "That is the society we are in. Everybody wants things to change instantly. Everybody can comment on something instantly. Things don't need much and it becomes a social media storm and things go viral.
"We can't go from the success that we had (reaching the Euros) to being a team that wins every single game that we play.
"You get the feeling that people would change the manager after a defeat but you'd run out of managers, which is the reality. You just can't think of things that way.
"You need to look at the progress over a period and access it on that more balanced basis.
"But from a national association perspective do we see progress with Steve since Steve took charge. Yes. There can't be any debate that we haven't progressed as a team and we want to see that continued progression."
Ireland had been on a terrible run of form before their 3-0 victory over Scotland in Dublin at the start of June.
However sections of the Aviva Stadium started singing 'there's only one Stephen Kenny' when his side went 2-0 up - and Maxwell admitted he doesn't think Scotland fans would've done the same.
He added: "Another interesting point in the Ireland game, they had been on a poor run and the Irish singing section behind the goal were singing 'there's only one Stephen Kenny' and I turned to Rod and said 'can you imagine we had been on that run and we were winning 2-0, could you see the Scotland fans doing that?'.
"I mean we have a different mindset in this country on football. We don't forgive or forget as easy as that unfortunately and that was kind of a symptom of will that happen.
"I have talked with different home nations chief executives and it is a different animal up here."
