Scotland happy after hard bargaining

Scotland manager Berti Vogts claims he and Scottish Football Association chief executive David Taylor were prepared to walk out on the World Cup qualifying schedule meeting to get what they wanted.

The pair eventually agreed with Italy, Slovenia, Norway, Belarus and Moldova delegates over the fixture list at Friday's negotiations in Rome.

The Scotland boss is optimistic too about qualification after threatening to leave the schedule in the hands of Fifa.

Vogts said: "It is the best draw we could have hoped for.

"We tried everything, and at one stage I was ready to walk away and leave it to Fifa to make the decisions.

"I feel we have a realistic chance of qualification from this group."

SFA chief executive Taylor concedes Scotland did not get everything their own way but he is nonetheless happy with the outcome.

He said: "We have to be happy with what we've got. At one stage, we were very close to walking out of the meeting and letting Fifa decide what they wanted from us - but we made an agreement that we are happy with in the end.

"The pressure was on us to get the fixtures that Berti wanted - and although we didn't get what we wanted, I am pleased with the result.

"It's all about give or take, and we had to make some compromises."

Taylor maintains he will not allow Scotland fans travelling to Italy in March next year to be subjected to the same abuse as Welsh supporters suffered in the Euro 2004 qualifiers.

He said: "They had horrendous problems here because the Italians were above the Welsh supporters, and there was vomit and urine raining down on them.

"It was horrific. That will not happen to the tartan army.

"Be it Milan, Turin or Rome, I will not put our fans in that situation.

"That game is the focus, but for me the big thing will be the double-header at home to Italy and away to Norway later in the campaign."