Campbell Ogilvie says the Scottish Football Association will not intervene in the stand-off between Craig Levein and Steven Fletcher.
The SFA president believes that all selection decisions should remain the preserve of the national team manager, even if the intervention of a third party might help to repair the relationship between Levein and the Sunderland striker.
The Scotland manager will announce his squad today for the World Cup 2014 qualifying double-header against Wales and Belgium, and Fletcher will not be recalled, despite having scored five goals in four games since moving to Sunderland from Wolverhampton Wanderers. Instead, it is the likely return of Darren Fletcher, the Manchester United midfielder, to the squad that will be the main talking point. Scotland supporters remain irked that Levein and Steven Fletcher cannot overcome their difference, particularly while the striker is in such prolific form. Ogilvie, however, remains convinced the SFA board should not attempt to influence managerial decisions. He was employed at Hearts when it was widely thought Vladimir Romanov, the club's owner, was interfering with team selections.
"There's been a lot of speculation but, really, for me, it's the manager's prerogative," the SFA president said. "The manager is employed to pick the players he thinks should be in the squad and I don't believe the board should be interfering. From my involvement at club level, I'm clear it has to be down to the manager."
Ogilvie is also adamant Levein should not be judged on the basis of the opening two games of the campaign, in which Scotland drew with Serbia and Macedonia at Hampden. The team were booed off on both occasions, and Levein was also the target of derision, but Ogilvie believes the right time to judge the manager will be at the end of the qualifying campaign.
"We've had two home games and we would have wanted more points from them," he said. "Our aim as a board is to get to the finals. I'm not going to start speculating about 'what if?' scenarios after two matches. We're totally behind the manager and the team going into the third game. We're under no misapprehension, the pressure is on us to take enough points from the remaining games."
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