GORDON SMITH

IT was great to bump into Gordon Smith in the media room at Ibrox on the opening day of the season.

He was at the match, having dug out his old broadcaster's hat, to resume his duties for the BBC Scotland team covering the Rangers-Kilmarnock game.

Of course it will be a plus factor for those who tune into the Beeb - and who would want to listen to any other station? - as Smudger's insight and forthright views are always worth listening too...even when you disagree with them ,as I often have.

However, there is a degree of disappointment in seeing him back on the media gallery as opposed to the more comfortable seats in the directors' box, where he perched during his all too brief spell as the chief executive of the Scottish Football Association.

It was a source of some mystery to me why so many of my press colleagues took against him from the moment his appointment was announced.

One daily newspaper reporter even shook his head in disbelief when he broke the news to me inside a ground on the outskirts of Vienna, where we were to watch a Scotland side, managed by Alex McLeish, take on Austria in a friendly.

For years we hacks - and some wee hacks too - had been screaming for a football man to be installed as the SFA supremo, and those shrieks were at their loudest during the disastrous tenure of David Taylor.

Yet, as soon as a guy who played at the top level, who had coaching experience at the top level, who operated as an agent for top players, and who knew how the media worked through his time on BBC radio and television, got the job there were howls of derision.

My reaction was one of  both welcome and a guarded optimism, tempered by a worry that Smith's background would work against him being accepted in some quarters.

As part of his background was a spell, at Rangers, during a playing career which saw him appear for, among others, Kilmarnock, Manchester City and Brighton,  the source of of any discontent about him should not be hard to work out.

But in all the dealings I have had with the man, I have always been impressed by the depth of his knowledge and understanding of the game, and even more to the point, of human nature, and his utter even handed approach.

It was not long though until whispering campaigns started by shady people who operate in the shadows, and to be fair, Smith did himself less than justice with some of his public statements.

The appointment of George Burley to succeed  McLeish, was hardly his finest hour, and the press conference to announce Burley's appointment turned into a farce when president George Peat and Smith highjacked it and got into an unseemly verbal brawl with the media.

Burley looked bewildered, though we were soon to discover that was a common state of mind for him, especially when Scotland were playing.

But he was not the first - nor will he be the last - SFA chief executive involved in appointing the wrong man as Scotland manager.

Unlike Taylor before him with Berti Vogts through, Smith was instrumental in removing Burley before he could do as much damage to Scotland's reputation as the German had managed.

It was after that though that Smith started to live on borrowed time, and when president Peat forced through the appointment of Craig Levein early this year,  those of us in the know held our breath for a departure we knew must come soon.

Smith had been Peat's favoured man for the chief executive job, and when the president insisted on Levein taking over the Scotland job - a decision which I continue to fail to see the logic of - - the former Dundee United manager soon became the president's favoured ''son'' at Hampden.

The bad blood which existed between Smith and Levein has been well enough chronicled, and despite the pipe of peace they smoked in public, most observers agreed they could find it hard to work together.

Not  for a moment do I believe that Levein had anything to do with Smith's departure, as even before the new national team boss entered Hampden, there were rumours a whispering campaign against the chief executive at a high level, from some who it was believed might have resented his background as a former Rangers player.

Though I have no evidence to suggest there was ever any such tittle tattle to to try to undermine former Celtic chairman Jack McGinn's time as president of the SFA, a time which was actually extended by a year beyond the normal occupancy.

No doubt any behind the scenes politicising in the Hampden corridors of power, which may have gone on in the late winter and early spring months of this year, will become public some day. Some day soon, I hope.

Until then, those who tune into BBC Radio Scotland will once again be given a splendid insight into what's going on by Smith.

The press box may not be as comfortable as the directors' box, but it's a lot more fun. And Gordon will also benefit from the bonus of meeting a better class of people there.