Nothing off table in picking Clarke successor - SFA

The Scottish FA’s chief executive says “nothing’s off the table” in replacing Steve Clarke as national head coach, a process that “starts now”.

The surprise announcement of Clarke stepping down quickly followed confirmation that Scotland could not progress to the World Cup knockout rounds. The head coach had agreed a new four-year contract just prior to the tournament.

The Scots opened Group C with a 1-0 win over Haiti but defeat by the same score by Morocco and a 3-0 loss to Brazil dampened chances of reaching the round of 32 as one of the eight best third-placed teams. Results elsewhere ultimately placed Scotland 11th of the 12 teams to finish third at the group stage.

“Football’s a very, very small world,” SFA chief executive Ian Maxwell said in Charlotte, North Carolina, where the Scotland team have been based.

“I’ve woken up this morning to a few messages from people that are interested in the job.

“Nothing’s off the table. We need to cast the net as far and wide as we can. It’s about getting the right coach, it’s not about necessarily where they come from. There’s a lot of good managers out there and it’s up to us to make sure that we pick the right one.

“The succession planning starts now.”

The Scots’ next games will be against North Macedonia, Slovenia and Switzerland in the autumn’s Nations League fixtures.

“We’re a really attractive job, for the right head coach, for the right manager,” Maxwell said.

“We’ve got a Euros that we’re [co-hosting] in 2028 to look forward to. There’s been a lot of success over the last few years and we need to make sure that we appoint someone that can improve on that and continue to drive us forward.”

Maxwell wants to make an appointment “as soon as we can” but added it must be “the right person”.

“It’s really, really difficult to put dates on it,” he explained. “We’ve obviously got games coming up in September.”

Former Kilmarnock, Reading and West Bromwich Albion manager Clarke took over as Scotland boss in 2019 and oversaw the men’s team’s first qualification to a tournament in 23 years.

Though the Scots fell short in the play-offs for the 2022 World Cup, they reached Euro 2024 and last year sealed a return to the biggest stage. This year’s men’s World Cup was the first to feature a Scotland team since 1998.

In all three tournaments, Clarke’s Scotland lost twice at the group stage and only one win was picked up across the three competitions – against Haiti two weeks ago.

Maxwell said the “overriding reaction at the moment is one of sadness” with news of Clarke’s departure still “very raw”.

“We’re sad that the World Cup journey’s over,” said the chief executive. “We’re sad that we weren’t able to achieve what we wanted to do and obviously we’re sad that our most successful head coach has decided to step down.

“We speak a lot. We spoke after the Brazil game. Everybody was obviously very down. That was the lowest anybody’s felt from a Scotland perspective for a long, long time. I spoke to him yesterday and he’d made his mind up that he wanted to step down.

“That’s ultimately his decision. I can understand why. Obviously, we’ve not performed as well as we wanted to. There’s been some fairly hysterical commentary back home, which hasn’t helped but ultimately it’s up to Steve.

“We need to be proud of the journey that got us here. We need to be incredibly proud of our supporters. They’ve travelled in tens of thousands. They have lit up America.”

Regarding the new contract that was announced in late May, Maxwell said: “We wanted to come into the competition in as stable a footing as possible. Extending his contract did that. It eliminated any talk about what was going to happen afterwards.

“Obviously, we find ourselves in a position that nobody wanted to be in. We wanted to perform well, we wanted to do what no Scotland team’s ever done before in a group stage. We weren’t able to achieve that.”

And Maxwell praised Clarke’s record, saying: “He’s been incredible. If we had sat seven years ago when we appointed him and said, ‘this is what the next seven years are going to look like’, everybody would’ve bitten your hand off for it.

“He’s been fantastic for us. The last thing that I would want is his reputation or legacy tarnished in any way, shape or form. It’s important that we recognise the significant achievements that he’s done.

“The meeting last night where he told the players, the emotion in that tells you how much they think of him and how much he thinks of them and we can’t lose sight of that.”