NEW SFA Chief Football Officer Craig Mulholland will play a central role in the selection of the next Scotland manager.
Steve Clarke ended his seven year stint as head coach within an hour of his team being formally eliminated from the World Cup finals.
Clarke, 62, signed a new four year deal before the tournament started and waived a six figure compensation sum written into the contract to step down after a vitriolic response to Scotland’s failure to secure a place in the last 32 of a new expanded 48 team competition.
In post since 2019 the Ayrshireman ended Scotland’s lengthy exile from major tournaments by leading the team to the 2021 and 2024 European Championships. America then marked a first appearance at the World Cup finals for 28 years.
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Despite securing their first win at the finals since 1990 over Haiti defeats to Morocco and Brazil were sobering, a goal difference of minus three falling well short of the cut-off point for the eight best third place finishers.
Croatia’s victory over Ghana formally ended Scotland’s involvement in the tournament and Clarke informed staff and players of his decision during an emotional meeting at the team hotel in Charlotte just after midnight UK time. The squad flew back to Glasgow from North Carolina this (Sunday) afternoon, and arrive home in the early hours of Monday.
Mulholland left Nottingham Forest to take up a new strategic role with the SFA and formally starts his new role as Chief Football Officer on Wednesday, replacing the departed Andy Gould after he left to take up a position with FIFA as a High Performance Specialist after three decades at the governing body. Head of Men’s Elite Strategy Chris Docherty has also left Hampden.
After signing his new four year contract Clarke expressed a wish to work with Mulholland on new ways to improve the pathway programme for young players in Scotland.
Before leaving Hampden Gould and Docherty co-authored a report into the player transition phase, between the ages of 16 and 21 and found that Scotland trailed behind similar size nations in providing opportunities to make the jump from academy football to the first team.
A follow up report then recommended the phasing out of the SFA’s seven Regional Performance Schools in Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Falkirk, Glasgow, Kilmarnock and Motherwell and a shift in emphasis from the 12-16 age group to focus on players aged 0-12.
Deciding how to move forward with improving first team access for young players is top of Mulholland’s in-box with some quick policy announcements likely to be pushed through after the failure in America.
SFA Chief Executive Ian Maxwell is likely to outline the process for selecting a new manager next week.
With a shallow pool of Scottish managers to pick from the governing body will cast the net wide in search of a replacement for the most successful national team manager of all time.
