Smith blasts FAI’s recruitment tactics

SCOTTISH FA chief executive Gordon Smith yesterday launched a vehement defence of their recruitment process of new boss George Burley and insisted their method was far better than the Republic of Ireland’s bid to find a successor to Steve Staunton.

When questioned at what was at times a heated press conference as to whether the SFA could have simply gone and identified a manager and gone and spoken to him privately, a clearly exasperated Smith replied, “If you notice what’s happened with the Republic of Ireland, every time they identify somebody privately, it comes out and they have to say what their doing and then the next person becomes second choice. That’s what happens with that if you go individually, so we decided against that.’’

He added: “I did say right at the very start that we would have someone in place by the end of January.”