Craig Levein poised to pay price for Scotland's fall on road to Rio

• Scotland's qualification hopes in tatters after Belgium defeat
• Gordon Strachan may consider international management

Ewan Murray
The Guardian, Wednesday 17 October 2012 22.47 BST

Scotland's search for a sixth permanent international manager in a decade is expected to begin within a fortnight, with Craig Levein set to pay the price for the country's disastrous start to their World Cup qualifying campaign.

A 2-0 defeat for the Scots in Brussels on Tuesday evening leaves their hopes of reaching Brazil in 2014 shattered. Scotland lie bottom of Group A, with a mere two points from four matches.

Public opinion, which has never appeared fully behind Levein, is now vehemently in favour of the Scottish Football Association disposing of their manager. It is now anticipated that will happen before Scotland face Luxembourg in a friendly next month. Informal SFA board talks will take place within days, and again formally next week, amid a private acknowledgement within the association that the manager's tenure must come to an end.

Levein succeeded George Burley in December 2009. He is due to return to his office at Hampden Park on Thursday before departing on a week's holiday.

"We're all bitterly disappointed to find ourselves bottom of the group after four games," said Stewart Regan, the SFA chief executive. "Looking back to the dates meeting, where we set out our fixtures, we were all hoping to get off to a much better start.

"I think we expected a difficult match against Belgium, recognising the quality of their team and how many of them are playing at the very highest levels of the Premiership.

"Probably the more difficult one to swallow was the match against Wales on Friday night, where we were 1-0 up with nine minutes to go then lost the match 2-1."

Regan also disputed the notion that Levein's prominent role in a wider overhaul of Scottish football would hand him more leeway from his employers than would otherwise be the case. "We appointed Mark Wotte [as performance director] to come in and build the foundations for a stronger Scotland going forward," added the chief executive.

"The progress we've made with the Under-17s and Under-19s recently, including qualification for the elite round of the Under-19 Championships, shows there are some green shoots, particularly for younger age groups.

"The national team is a different proposition. Craig's got a set of players he's been working with, he has those players for the European Championship and we came into the World Cup 2014 campaign with a lot of optimism and we all hoped that we would have started better than we have done.

"That hasn't proved to be the case and we now have to sit down andreflect on that and decide on the next steps."

An emotional Levein addressed his players in the aftermath of Scotland's Belgian loss, informing them of his belief they would end an absence from major tournaments which will now stretch to 18 years as long as they stuck to their current principles and attitudes. Several of those squad members took from Levein's words that the manager knew his reign was over.

Gordon Smith, who was the SFA chief executive when Levein was appointed, has stated the manager should take the decision out of his employers' hands and step down. Smith added: "The team hasn't really improved despite the fact the manager put himself under pressure by saying this is the best group of players Scotland have had for years. If you say that and you don't qualify, you become the common denominator of it all."

The former Hearts, Leicester City and Dundee United manager has presided over three wins in 13 competitive fixtures, two of those arriving against lowly Liechtenstein. Levein's continued assertions of Scottish progress has not been borne out by results.

Intrigue now surrounds whom the SFA will turn to next, in a bid to halt an alarming slide into international football's wilderness. Gordon Strachan and Alex McLeish are the early favourites to succeed Levein and, given they are both out of work, would hold obvious appeal. Yet Wotte's now prominent role cannot be discounted, raising the outside possibility of the Scots turning to a foreign coach.

Strachan has always held strong views about the structure of Scottish football and the initial indications are he would at least consider a first international management spell. McLeish, too, is thought to be amenable to a second stint in the post he left in 2007 to take charge at Birmingham City. Scotland have no competitive fixture until next March.

"Now is not the time to be making announcements and decisions. That's something that'll happen over the course of the next few days," Regan said. "It's important that we just reflect on the start to the campaign, sit down with the manager and with the board and actually look at what's happened over the last few matches and, in particular, what's happened in the last two games and then decide on our course of action.

"It's important that we actually sit down, look at the facts and then decide on the next steps."

Taken from the Guardian/Observer