Smith quits SFA role

[Jim White 0]

Gordon Smith has insisted he thought carefully about his decision to stand down as SFA chief executive.

 

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[Zappa 0]

Gordon Smith was a dignified and decent pundit with balanced knowledge of the game, and a leaning towards Rangers.

 

As SFA CE he was an abysmal joke, an absolute buffoon who didn't know how to conduct himself, who didn't carry out the right tasks, and for all the optimism we had about this man getting the job, he ended up being worse at it than his predecessors.

 

Glad he's gone, and hopefully he can go back to being a more balanced and fair person than the dimwit he turned into.

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IMO you're being overly harsh on Smith Danny. I don't know what his job really involved & I doubt that you do either. As I've said, I personally think that Smith took a job where he thought he would actually have some power and a level of control. He didn't have anything though, just a wage packet, a vote and the responsibility to speak on behalf of the suits/blazers.

[andy steel 0]

I viewed his habit of getting riled, and showing it, by the fatuous and immature sniping of the media as a strength. You can hardly berate him for acting as anyone normal would on one hand, then moan about getting a blazer (with, no doubt, the requisite PR skills to avoid answering anything) to replace him.

[Danny 0]

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IMO you're being overly harsh on Smith Danny. I don't know what his job really involved & I doubt that you do either. As I've said, I personally think that Smith took a job where he thought he would actually have some power and a level of control. He didn't have anything though, just a wage packet, a vote and the responsibility to speak on behalf of the suits/blazers.

 

No one can persuade me otherwise - plenty of Rangers fans saw the way he became in that role and started to heavily dislike him, and I was one of them.

 

Harsh? I actually think I'm being kind

[stewarty 2,085]

His messages were confusing and often contradictory. Taking a recent example of the outcry over the appeals process - Smith was on Radio Scotland (and probably quite a few other media outlets) defending the SFA's stance and somehow suggesting that having an independent review panel was a contravention of FIFA rules - even though it is a common practice in other countries, including England. He also spelled out that the current process was drawn up and agreed in consultation with wider football community in Scotland whilst also hinting that it was dreamt up on the suggestion of the refereeing fraternity. Then, lo-and-behold, within a week or so, the SFA agree to review the process and are likely to borrow the model used in England.

 

I sympathise with him to a degree in that he clearly was working with one hand behind his back. But in hindsight he wasn't the right man for the job and there are big questions over his management and public speaking abilities.