Scottish athletics chairman Ian Beattie says the SFA must re-think their executive structure

But football’s loss has been athletics’ gain. Because Beattie is also counting down the final two years of an eight-year stint as chairman of scottishathletics, a period which has seen remarkable growth in the sport at both grassroots and high-performance level, all driven by a generally satisfied base of member clubs.

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Little wonder if he looks at all the chaos in football every now and then and reflects that this entire SFA interlude was perhaps something of a lucky near miss. “Almost immediately there was a referee’s strike, and then there was the Rangers situation, so it hasn’t been particularly easy,” he says.

With Regan’s resignation last week meaning the SFA are searching once again for a new chief executive, the obvious follow-up question is whether Beattie was looking to enter the race again, as a heavyweight rival to early frontrunner Leeann Dempster of Hibernian.

For the record, it was a question posed on BBC Radio Scotland this Saturday, then quickly dismissed again with the old truism that the next occupant of Scottish football’s top job must be more of a “football person”, something of a slight considering Beattie is a former amateur football referee and a serial season ticket holder with many clubs.

So is he or isn’t he? Well, while Beattie is happy to help the SFA board or whichever headhunters’ firm they opt for in whatever way he can should they reach out, he is more than content where he is. And, crucially as far as he is concerned, a radical re-think of the association’s executive structure is required before the position would hold more of an attraction.

Another plausible contender for the role opted to count himself out of the running yesterday when Regan’s stand-in Andrew McKinlay jumped ship to Scottish Golf.

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In a nutshell, Beattie feels the SFA remains too strait-jacketed by its committee structure and the way forward is to replicate the lie of the land at scottishathletics, where he as non-executive chairman provides oversight and guidance to a chief executive in the form of Mark Munro.

Were the SFA and its member clubs genuinely willing to embrace this kind of change going forward, then this chairman’s role certainly would be a position he is interested in.

“Football is such an important sport in this country that – despite what I heard Chick Young say about me on Sportsound on Saturday – I have far more of an interest in it than he realises,” said Beattie.

“I have been a season ticket holder at four different clubs, I’ve refereed, I’ve got an Under-16 Scottish Cup winners’ medal with my school team, in fact I was involved in doing some work with Gordon Smith when he was in there around the Uefa Champions League.

“But there is just so much hassle around that role,” he added. “Which makes me think that it is a very difficult job. I am pretty settled where I am and I enjoy being the chair of scottishathletics. I am a non-exec but

I let my chief executive get on with things, we don’t have a huge committee structure.

“If the SFA were looking at restructuring to create a non-executive chairperson’s role, then I have only got two years left at scottishathletics and that is something that would really interest me. Rugby, for instance, also has a president and a chairman who manages the chief exec, not a stack of different committees, and it seems to work quite well.

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“As for the CEO’s role, I was interested eight years ago and I suspect that maybe my time has passed for that. It is a tricky role and not one my wife would ever be too keen for me to take, just because of the constant scrutiny and abuse people get in these roles. I am pretty thick skinned but I think a lot of it is not great.

“I knew Stewart Regan pretty well and I think it was a tough job he had, because I don’t think the structure helps. I know Stewart has made some changes, and there were some good ideas in the McLeish report, but it hasn’t really moved on too much.

And it does still look like there is a lot of self interest in the Scottish game.

“I would hope the clubs and the association can come together, but it hasn’t happened yet and I think this is a big appointment. They need a bit more structural change to get everyone operating for the benefit of Scottish football.

“The CEO role is misinterpreted by the fans and sometimes by the media as well. While the focus is on having a successful national team – and that is a big part of it – building the whole structure, the pathway, the development is a key part and that is something I don’t really see. We seem to be pretty good at producing players up to Under-16 level then I don’t really see what happens after that. It would take an element of moving away from the committee structure and the only way that would change would be if the clubs decided they want that kind of thing and vote it through.

“I am a big fan of football and I could talk for ages about it,” Beattie added. “We are always keen to work across the sports. Certainly when Campbell Ogilvie was president, he had a good relationship with a lot of the other chairs, and worked quite hard at that. We have all got the same issues, we all want more people involved in the game, and we all want those involved in the game to get better. We all want to see people come through to the top level and bring Scottish success.

“About two or three times a season we try to go to see Stirling Albion, which is a good example of a community club which has to balance its budget. I was absolutely delighted to watch that Liverpool-Man City the other day and see Andy Robertson playing at such a high level.

“The model Scotland needs is one where we feed our players through to top level competition. A lot of clubs recognise that, but Falkirk scrapping their youth policy was really sad. If the model is forcing people down that route I don’t think the model is right.”