Stewart Regan is discovering the first signs of unrest against his tenure as Chief Executive of the SFA.
Scotland’s World Cup KO from Slovenia in the worst qualifying group is being followed up by opposition to Project Brave.
With Mark Wotte’s 2020 Vision for international respectability has been replaced by Project Brave which will streamline existing SFA funding into 16 ‘elite’ clubs.
Regan has shown the touch of Filip Sebo at virtually everything he has touched ranging from a referee strike, UEFA licences, commercial deals with complete failure at international level running in the background.
While Iceland qualify for back-to-back major competitions Scotland is the only country in Europe which has no u-19 domestic football set up.
From u-17 football boys just out of school are expected to step into the so-called Development League while their counterparts across Europe play at u-19 level.
The current club set up at u-17 level excludes St Johnstone and Ross County while Fife Elite Academy and Forth Valley FA meet the criteria.
Project Brave is set to get the go-ahead but this morning The Herald reports on a plan by Championship clubs to derail Regan’s latest folly.
It reports: “Stewart Regan, the SFA chief executive, has been warned that he is effectively forcing Ladbrokes Championship clubs to put their futures at risk in an attempt to meet criteria for Project Brave. Herald Sport understands that Martin Ritchie, of Falkirk, and Warren Hawke, of Morton, sat down with the SFA supremo at Hampden Park shortly after he returned from Slovenia this weekend to register their concerns on behalf of the entire second tier about what is being expected of them under the association’s ambitious new plans to re-shape their Club Academy Scotland system.
“The news comes hot on the heels of suggestions at the weekend that even the top flight is divided about the merits of the association’s new flagship scheme, with Ross County chairman Roy MacGregor – one of the architects of the plan – unhappy about how the plan is unfolding.
“With an appeals process already under way, each one of Scotland’s aspiring ‘pro youth’ academies will go before the SFA’s Professional Game Board by the end of this month to learn the fate of their application to be part of this new structure, with the top 16 academies likely to be split between ‘elite’ academies and those working towards that status, then the rump of all other clubs comprising a third tier.
With Dave King and Sevco set to be exposed at the Court of Session tomorrow and Celtic requesting an independent review of governance over the last six years it promises to be a bleak winter of discontent for Regan and his back-slappers inside Hampden.
