CRAIG Levein last night insisted Scottish Football Association chief executive Gordon Smith and president George Peat should be blamed for Scotland's poor start to the World Cup campaign.
The Dundee United manager, who was one of the early candidates for the international job prior to George Burley being appointed, believes Smith and Peat blundered badly by agreeing to play Macedonia away in searing heat for the opening match.
Wha
t Levein finds even more baffling, though, is why the SFA delegation arranged for a second match to be played away from Hampden – against Iceland on Wednesday – meaning the Scots have to wait until October for their first game on home soil.
Levein, who won 16 caps for Scotland and played in the 1990 World Cup, believes under-fire Burley, who was not appointed until after the fixtures meeting had been held, has been left to carry the can following shoddy planning by his employers.
He said: "George is the right man for the job and he's had a lot of unfair criticism over only one competitive match.
"For me, if there is any criticism at all it should be directed at Gordon Smith and George Peat. In my eyes those two have naively organised to play Macedonia when they should've known that the temperature would be extreme, to say the least.
"What they've done is given George a really difficult job to start with and he's now been left holding the baby.
"It has been proven in the past that Macedonia is an extremely difficult place to go and pick up points in any conditions, never mind when the temperature is sky-high."
Levein's criticism of the SFA hierarchy is equally stinging on the subject of playing Iceland this midweek. Even though he believes Scotland have a good chance of winning, he insists no experienced manager would've chosen such an arduous start. He added: "The second match is another away game and as an SPL manager, if I received my fixtures at the start of a season and saw two away games I'd be absolutely furious.
"One game away at the start of a campaign is bad enough but two is ridiculous.
"What you want is to pick up points early and build momentum. But what we've had because of the way the fixtures have been agreed is one of the hardest away games first and then another one straight on the back of it.
"I'm prepared to put my head above the parapet here and say it would've been much better to start off with a home fixture."
Levein also came to Burley's defence, pointing out that the Macedonians have built up a fearsome record on their home turf. He added: "George has had to fight against public expectation as well.
"Not many people actually realise how hard it is to go across to Macedonia and get something – better teams than Scotland have lost there in the past. But I thought we played well in the second half and I do feel we've got a very good chance of beating Iceland on Wednesday."
The full article contains 527 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
