NEIL Doncaster, the SPFL chief executive, last night defended his appointment to the SFA board and vowed to do his utmost to defuse the “tension” that exists between the two bodies.
Doncaster joined the board after Ian Maxwell, the Partick Thistle general manager who is in the running to succeed Stewart Regan as SFA chief executive, stood down last month.
The move was criticised by some with Stewart Gilmour, the former St Mirren chairman, branding it “shocking” and “unbelievable” and Peter Houston, the ex-Scotland assistant manager, claiming it was due to “politics”.
But Doncaster, speaking in Edinburgh yesterday following the second general assembly of the Association of European Professional Leagues, insisted he could help to ensure a more harmonious relationship between the SFA and the SPFL in future.
“It is essential that we have a better alignment between the national game and the governing body,” he said. “I hope that my appointment will aid that process. It is something that I am personally very committed to.
“I am looking forward to working with the next chief executive of the Scottish FA, whoever he or she may be, in order to achieve that. We all work in the same building. We should be better aligned than we are.
“There are always points of tension between the head bodies in football and on occasion between the governing body and the league in Scotland. That is natural. Sometimes those tensions were overblown and appeared to be larger than they really were.
“But I am hopeful that going forward with the appointment of a new chief executive we will be able to work together for the benefit of the game as a whole.”
Doncaster was appointed to the SFA board after Peter Lawwell, the Celtic chief executive, called publicly for the restructuring of the organisation following the departure of Regan after a series of high-profile controversies in February.
The Englishman, who took over as chief executive at the SPL in 2009 and retained that position when they merged with the SFL in 2013, denied that the SPFL having a say in the running of Scottish football would be detrimental to the game here.
“I don’t see that at all,” he said. “There should be far better alignment between the objectives of both organisations. I am very hopeful my appointment to the board of the Scottish FA will facilitate that.
“When I sit around that board table I have, the same as Mike Mulraney, Gary Hughes, Ana Stewart, Rod Petrie, Alan McRae, Thomas McKeown, my Scottish FA hat on. We are all there for the good of that organisation.
“We come from different backgrounds, we have different skill sets, but ultimately we all sit there for the benefit of the Scottish FA. I do believe by sitting there and also by sitting with the SPFL we can achieve that alignment that the game needs.”
Doncaster has ruled himself out of the running for the SFA vacancy and also dismissed the possibility of the governing body merging with the SPFL to form one organisation.
“I don’t see that happening,” he said. “The governing body are the member of UEFA and FIFA. We are the professional league. If you look at everywhere else throughout Europe there is a separation between the governing body, the national association, and the professional league. There are very few places in the world where you don’t have that separation.
“Australia is an example, they actually have the league within the governing body. But the clubs there are trying their best to separate from the governing body because it is not working.
“I think any move to try and combine the governing body and the football league is a strange idea. I just don’t see any benefits to it for the game. It is natural to have a separation.
“Our focus as a league is on running the league and two cup competitions and in commercialising those for the benefit of our member clubs. That is it. It is very straightforward.
“The governing body, the Scottish FA, has a much wider role involving grass roots, the women’s game, the national stadium, the national team, discipline, referees. That is its focus. It has to do all those things. We do totally different things.
“A far better and closer alignment between the organisations is a very positive thing. I absolutely don’t see any merger being possible or likely.”
Meanwhile, Doncaster has predicted that concern over a decline in genuine competition within Europe’s top leagues could help Scottish football achieve a better deal from UEFA.
He has spoken before about “sinister” developments which saw some leading clubs seek guaranteed entry regardless of league position.
But the newly-named European Leagues is confident it will have a greater say in negotiations for the 2021-24 system.
Doncaster said: “There is an ongoing concern about the gap that is developing between the very biggest clubs and the rest.
Scottish football is well represented both by ourselves within the European Leagues, but also with (Celtic chief executive) Peter Lawwell being on the board of the European Clubs’ Association.
“I think there is a genuine desire to protect the interests of the smaller-sized leagues as we see the gap between them and the big five grow bigger and bigger. It’s vital that we do that.”
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