The fate of Scotland manager Alex McLeish will be decided at a meeting at Hampden today.
The SFA board will gather for a scheduled get-together at the national stadium and top of their agenda will be whether or not to sack McLeish.
The governing body have allowed a cloud to hang over the head of the national coach since last month’s dreadful 3-0 Euro 2020 qualifying defeat to Kazakhstan – a result branded by many the worst in the nation’s footballing history – and uninspiring 2-0 win against minnows San Marino.
All the uncertainty could finally be blown away this afternoon, with the SFA bigwigs facing a stark “back him or sack him” choice.
The former Rangers and Hibs boss did successfully guide the Scots to next year’s Nations League play-offs but pressure has been building ever since the humiliating set-back in Nursultan against a Kazakh team ranked 117th in the world.
SFA chief executive Ian Maxwell is due to sit down with president Alan McCrae, vice-president Rod Petrie, SPFL chief Neil Doncaster and fellow board members Michael Mulraney, Thomas McKeown and Ana Stewart first thing today to thrash out a decision on whether to axe the 60-year-old now or give him a vote of confidence.
McCrae, who chaired McLeish’s testimonial committee during his Aberdeen playing days, and his former Hibs chairman Petrie are likely to back the manager to stay on but the rest will be aware of the anger growing among the Tartan Army as fans fear another missed opportunity to end Scotland’s long wait to qualify for a major tournament.
Former Scotland goalkeeper Rab Douglas, who earned 19 caps for his country, feels McLeish deserves to know his fate even if it is bad news.
Douglas said: “They need to either come out and back him or look elsewhere and it’s typical SFA that they have allowed this to drag on for so long.”
The former Dundee and Celtic number one added: “It is not right to leave such a cloud hanging over him.”
If Scotland cannot fight their way back into contention in Group I, they will be left with a two-game shoot-out through the Nations League play-offs in order to secure a berth at Euro 2020, a tournament that is being partly staged on home soil, with four games pencilled in for Hampden.
It was reported that McLeish was set to be axed last month but the SFA have remained quiet on the issue since then.
He is currently in his second stint in charge of the national team, having come close to reaching Euro 2008 first time round.
He walked away from the job to join Birmingham on the back of a 10-game run that brought seven victories, before defeat to Italy in their final qualifier ended dreams of competing at the finals in Austria and Switzerland.
However, his second go at the job has gone nowhere near as smoothly, with just five wins from 12 games, and he faced boos from the disgruntled supporters who travelled to Serravalle to see Scotland struggle to a victory over San Marino three days after their shock defeat in Kazakhstan.
Speaking after his side’s nervy 2-0 win over the world’s worst-ranked side, McLeish refused to speculate on his future, saying: “I can only worry about what is in my control. I have concerns of whatever, but that is not one of them. That’s not my decision.”
