Hello Goodbye: Gordon Smith gone from the SFA
Will he miss out on Macca at Hampden?
Ordinarily, if someone left a post for personal reason, their decision would be respected and they would be left alone to work out whatever the reason behind their departure was.
No wait, that’s not true at all, a statement citing “personal reasons” is usually the call to wire right in to someone and in the case of Gordon Smith (ex) of the SFA, well, what do you think we are going to do?
If the man genuinely does have personal issues to contend with, we’ll wish him all the best for those but frankly, the personal issue we can imagine it being is that Smith actually discovered that he was chocolate and started to eat himself.
A lot of the blame must lie with the SFA, the man was never fit for purpose in the first place, lacking in many areas of the criteria laid out by the SFA for the position.
A prominent football career with time spent at Kilmarnock and Rangers, as well as time spent down South, allied to business sense, makes a fine case for a pundit who should be able to communicate well. Smith wasn’t a bad pundit, sure he was biased but most pundits have a level of bias, we’re football people for a reason and if you lose that, you’re commentary or analysis is going to be weaker.
We have no real issues with pundits having an interest in a team, we wished there was a better spread of opinions but it’s not one of the major concerns we have.
Who is running the national game in Scotland is a major concern and when it came to Smith’s tenure, it was doomed from the start.
Failing to find a sponsor for the Scottish Cup must rank highly in Smith’s list of failings but it’s not alone. The debacle of the George Burley era will have Smith’s name written across it, no matter the amount of buck passing he displayed.
Even before Burley was appointed, Smith’s treatment of Mark McGhee and subsequent media posturing was fairly abysmal. Mind you, given Aberdeen’s form this season, perhaps it was a bullet dodged by the SFA that time around.
In recent weeks, Smith has also been made to look foolish with his arguments over the running of the SFA disciplinary panel. Smith was unable to give any form of response when asked about how the video review panel was run or how a case was referred to it.
This silence was the opposite of his reaction in recent times when the findings of the review panel were brought into question.
It appears the straw that has finally broken this camel’s back came about from Livingston, who quite rightly questioned why Robbie Winters was being referred to the disciplinary committee for simulation. Could it have been because Gordon Smith was at the match and he saw the incident which the officials missed?
Could Smith genuinely be that arrogant, egotistical, stupid or silly to make this call on his own?
Do we know what rhetorical means?
No one should be happy about anyone leaving a post, personal reasons or not…but this is a chance for a fresh start for the SFA. Lets hope a person who cares about the game rather than self promotion or preservation gets the chance to take the reigns.
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Good riddance to the useless wiggy bastard.
Peat must be shiteing himself now…
Whoever came up with the Elanor Rug-bye remark is a very talented and funny person!
Haha….re: the Peat comment, yeah…but thats not a new thing.
george peat must be next and after him, all the other faceless wonders whoever they are. The time is right for a complete overhaul.
Definitely agree Tartan Terror, perhaps it is linked with the McLeish report…maybe not – but this is surely the best chance we will have to drag the Scottish game into the new millennium and kickstart the game again.
I really hope that the correct appointment is made and wish Smith well in whatever personal issues he has to deal with.
Can’t help but think though that small minded bigotry was a constant stick to hit Smith with though. Could it be because he was an ex Rangers player?
Paranoia is a terrible thing Quagmire.
Smith gave his enemies enough sticks to hit him with…and to be honest, Smith made more of an issue about bigotry than most people ever made of it about him – he was the man who used the term “enemies”
Not paranoid Ed, just floating an idea out there.
He did make an erse of things, the whole set up needs overhauled with one guy running the game. I thought a younger more forward thinking man in Smith would be the answer, evidently not.
Who would realistically want this job?
It is a problem.
On one hand, we need someone removed from the world of football who can see through most of the rubbish and point scoring.
Then again, why would someone who has no interest in football be interested in the post.
A younger, forward thinking inventive person should be amongst the candidates – however, it can’t be one that is all about themselves. The best administrators are ones that shy away from the spotlight, they just want to do their job and not be seen.
It’s one of the big problems at the moment with the SFA. You had Smith, you had Peat who was always happy to give a soundbite (still find it hard to believe he is in the job after the Iwulemo comments) and then you have pantomime dame Hugh Dallas who will do anything to get attention.
We need backroom men who will push the game on and bring through the transparency that this game needs. No running body or set of rules will ever be perfect….but see if its all out in the open before we start, then people will know where they stand.
Thats our hope…but then again, the people who appointed Gordon are still there and if they make the calls again, who is to say there will be change?
Personally, I’d give it to Dick.
The current favourite apears to be Campbell Ogilvie. Unlikely this will assuage any feelings of bias towards one half of the gruesome twosome. I propose a complete revamp of the whole administration which would allow me to run it as an iron fist dictator type. My first idea: let WeKnow SFA design the Scotland strip.
Not sure about that…did Ogilvie not have a big fall out with Bain when he left Ibrox? if he hates Celtic and Rangers, it’s probably the best chance Scottish football has of getting someone in charge who can keep things in line!
Haha…let our design team loose on the Scotland strip? They’re probably better suited to kitting out the fans as opposed to the players!
Get Jerry Sadowitz in. He hates f**king everything!