Stewart Regan’s gone but what now for Scottish FA?

It’s not a popular notion, but his heart was in the right place and he wanted to make things happen. The archaic structure of the SFA didn’t help. In the end, it was time for him to leave. It was best for everyone. But what now?

You have a better chance of getting a camel through the eye of a needle than you have of becoming popular as chief executive of the SFA. Given the politics of Scottish football, it’s impossible. Has anybody been popular in that role? Ever?

In the hours after Regan’s departure there was a thread on a website about who might succeed him. Hibs’ impressive leader, Leeann Dempster, was mooted only to be shot down by some contributors because she, apparently, once held a season ticket at Rangers. That’s an isolated and perhaps extreme example of the bitterness that’s out there, but this is not a poisoned chalice of a job we’re talking about, it’s a poisoned bucket.

Regan’s departure doesn’t fix things any more than Gordon Smith’s did, than David Taylor’s did, than Jim Farry’s did. An unpopular leader has been ousted. Fine. Job done. What’s next? Is there anybody of real vision in there? Does anybody know, precisely, what the SFA exists for these days? Can anybody bring an end to the destructive relationship between the SFA and the SPFL? Is there a commanding presence who will go out and make a smart appointment of the next manager?

Or is more of the same nigh? The same clunking SFA structure, the same intransigence, the same unbreakable self-interest in the club game? Party on, Regan has gone. Alas, the crisis of leadership has not.