Scotland chief knew Craig Levein planned to go after World Cup

• Stewart Regan had 'confidential' talks with manager
• Gordon Strachan leads list of possible successors

Ewan Murray

Stewart Regan, the chief executive of the Scottish Football Association, has revealed he privately knew for "some time" of Craig Levein's intention to quit as their international manager at the end of the 2014 World Cup campaign.

Levein was finally dismissed yesterday evening, with Gordon Strachan the heavy favourite to step into the Scotland post. Levein will continue to be paid the remaining value of his contract, about £700,000, over the next 20 months although it is understood such an agreement would end if he takes up another management job.

Regan cited Scotland's dismal start to their World Cup qualifying campaign – they lie bottom of Group A – as a key motivation in Levein's sacking. He also admitted the manager's long-term thinking played a significant part.

"The factors that contributed to today's decision were the results first and foremost and also Craig's intention to step down come what may at the end of the current campaign," Regan said. "Craig shared that with me privately some time ago. The board were made aware of that following the meeting we had with him last Tuesday.

"It was a discussion between Craig and myself. It was a private discussion. He had not shared that with anybody outside of myself. It was a confidential discussion. He was thoroughly committed to the campaign and he had decided that his future was not going to be in international football management after the current campaign."

Levein presided over a mere three wins from 12 competitive matches in charge of the Scots, who are now ranked 56th in the world. Levein declined an opportunity to visit Hampden to learn his fate in person.

Regan added: "I think first of all we just need to restore some respectability to the current campaign. At the beginning of the campaign, if you'd have asked where we thought we'd be after four games, it wouldn't have been bottom.

"We're not in the bottom pot yet we find ourselves bottom of the group, behind teams who are lower than us in the Fifa rankings and in lower pots in the Fifa World Cup process. We don't believe we are bottom-of-the-group material. So let's start with regaining respectability."

Strachan, who enjoyed a successful time at Celtic, has been out of work since leaving Middlesbrough in October 2010. Joe Jordan and Alex McLeish, who are out of work, are also bound to enter the SFA's thoughts.

The initial suggestions are that Strachan would relish a first international management role but the SFA will not move swiftly. It would be a surprise if an appointment was made inside a month.

"I think it's too early to speculate on future managers," said Regan. "We're not going to sit down as a board until next week. Any recruitment campaign needs to get the best candidate as quickly as possible, particularly when we have a World Cup qualifier in March."

Billy Stark, Scotland's Under-21 manager, will name a squad and take charge of the side for next week's friendly in Luxembourg. In the meantime the SFA must battle legitimate criticism over its handling of the final days of the Levein era. The 48-year-old had initially expected to learn of his fate last Thursday but the SFA sought extra time before sacking him, 20 days after the last game of his tenure.

"In an ideal world we would have not made the decision as late as we have," Regan said. "But unfortunately there are times when we have to get more information. We have considered all the facts and gone through as much information and preparation as we can, in terms of understanding the implications on this decision.

"The process we've gone through has been really thorough. Sometimes decisions just take longer than just happening overnight. We've gone through a really rigorous process and arrived at a collective decision to take the game forward."

A continual theme of the Levein era, on-field woes aside, was the respect he was afforded by members of his squad. Charlie Adam typified that yesterday afternoon by tweeting his disgust at the SFA's actions.
Adam wrote: "On my way back from [training] to hear Craig Levein has gone. Unbelievable. Can't believe the Scottish papers got what they wanted."

Taken from the Guardian/Observer