When Scotland qualified for the Euros in 2020, the word Scottish FA chief executive Ian Maxwell reached for was ‘transformative’. Three years on, having made it to the 2024 edition with two games to spare, his central thought is ‘legacy’.
The watershed victory in Serbia may have ended a 23-year wait for a major tournament, but the €9.25million (£8.3m) qualification fee mainly helped cover a £4.5m pandemic-shaped hole in the governing body’s finances.
Advertisement
But Maxwell knows the time is right to think about the future — not only how to use the money garnered by the national team’s success, but also to reflect on manager Steve Clarke, the job he has achieved and the attention he will be getting because of it.
“We felt a little bit of (the impact of success) in 2021 (Euro 2020), but it was curtailed because of Covid,” Maxwell tells The Athletic. “Germany will be great and so will 2028 at home, but the big legacy is the funding for facilities.”
“We were at parliament last night talking to the DCMS (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport) about the funding they have provided. This tranche is going to impact around 100 facilities and pitches across the country, which is massive.
“It is about changing facilities as, from a women and girls perspective, they’re not suitable. It is relaying surfaces, upgrading grass pitches, upgrading grass to synthetic, building new facilities and keeping existing ones open. It’s about making sure that no more pitches are closed in the country unless it really can’t be helped.”
Around £20million of funding from DCMS has been invested across four years, a cycle which comes to an end next year, but the SFA were able to use partner funding, which will see that total become around £40million.
“The number of players we have post-Covid has grown and the number of girls and women playing continues to increase, but the number of pitches has decreased,” adds Maxwell. “You can’t have more activity and fewer places to play. Those two things don’t combine, so we need to solve that problem.
“It’s never really been an association focus, it has historically been local authority and Scottish government. They don’t have the finances to do it, so someone needs to and we are taking it on ourselves as we know the impact it has on the game and communities.”
Advertisement
Maxwell is looking for more opportunities to work in tandem with government, businesses or philanthropists to boost the grassroots game, but he realises it is qualification rewards and gate receipts from hosting major tournaments that enables the SFA to ring-fence money for infrastructure projects.
After a 17-year playing career and four years as managing director at Partick Thistle, Maxwell replaced Stewart Regan in 2018. His first week in the job saw Scotland lose 3-0 away to Kazakhstan in a doomed qualifying campaign under Alex McLeish, but the appointment of Clarke in May 2019 has brought back-to-back qualifications.
After underwhelming performances in two of the three group games at Euro 2020, failing to make last year’s World Cup after losing to Ukraine stalled momentum. Rather than wait to see how the team began the next qualifying group, Clarke was offered a new contract in March until 2026.
“It was just the confidence in his ability,” adds Maxwell. “As a board, you have to have a balanced view of things. I get everyone was disappointed by the Ukraine result, but there is a lot more that goes into assessing the progression.
“We looked at how we prepared for the Ukraine game in June and what we did right, what we did wrong. He’s always reviewing everything that happens to make sure we don’t make the same mistakes. This time we took the players away for a camp in June and we did things differently.
“He has done everything we have asked of him. I remember when we appointed him I said he had to make a pot four team into a pot two team. That’s what he did for this qualifying draw, which got us there.”
Clarke turned 60 in August and has taken charge of 51 games, the most since the nine-year tenure of Craig Brown. He has constantly driven up standards since taking over the reins and that intensity has been key to squeezing every drop from both his players and his board.
Advertisement
“Everyone wants to do more but we don’t have the resources of the top clubs to do the data analysis and other things they have as we’re just not there as a size of business,” adds Maxwell. “We’ve got Andy Robertson, Kieran Tierney and Scott McTominay at big clubs where it feels like they have unlimited finances and can be at the best hotels and have the best planes.
“We explain that we are doing as much as we can to make sure they are prepared properly, but we have a number and that number is still a lot less than they are used to. They understand it, they see the steps we’ve taken and improvements we’ve made to training facilities.”
Despite Clarke’s success, succession planning is also a pre-requisite for any decision-maker in football.
“Managers leave because they’re either doing really well or not doing well. It’s always at the back of your mind that Steve’s stock is high and you never know when the phone is going to ring. We will deal with that, but we’ve always got half an eye on what is out there.”
In the short term, however, all Scottish eyes will be on what happens next summer.
(Top photo: Ross Parker/SNS Group via Getty Images)