SFA NOW IN REAL DANGER OF SINKING

YOU may recall I recently described the Scottish Football Association as leaking like the Titanic after the way its internal dealings were splashed all over a newspaper in the wake of TannadiceGate.

Now I must amend that. For it appears that what has happened relating to the Hugh Dallas alleged email has left the SFA holed with a leak the size of the General Belgrano after one of Her Majesty's vessels slammed a couple of tin fish into the dangerous enemy battleship.

When the Dallas story broke in the News of the World, under the byline, Charlie Lavery, I had my suspicion as to where it had originated.

I am indebted to what most reporters believe is the best connected-inside-Parkhead- Celtic-website, Celtic Quick News, for confirming that suspicion.

Celtic Quick News, which has been pushing this story, and trailing where it will develop, all week, claimed that the source of the Dallas tale was the Republic of Ireland based, Phil Mac Giolla Bhain.

In the past the News of the World  have used a number of his stories, and were happy to use his byline. However, I understand that a decision was taken at a high editorial level, to stop using Phil Mac Giolla Bhain's name in the paper.

Hence the apparent collaboration with Charlie Lavery, an old Sunday Mail pal of mine, who, if he didn't have to work on a Saturday, would surely be a Celtic season ticket holder.

Not that any other hack - however old and tired - can have any quibble with a good story, or with the newspaper which published it, providing the story is true and balanced, and its source is not someone who may be percieved by some to have an agenda.

The wider issue, and what must be of grave concern to the SFA's new chief executive Stewart Regan, is the fact that the organisation he presides over seems unable to go about its day to day business without leaks and accusations.

This is a problem which appears to have escalated since the resignation of embittered assistant ref, Steven Craven, followed by his wild accusations of bullying and victimisation. Charges which he levelled against the head of the SFA's refereeing department, former FIFA World Cup whistler, Hugh Dallas.

The timing of Dallas appearing to be in the cross hairs of those hidden snipers with Celtic DNA, has also coincided with  Regan  arriving as the new kid on the block.

Dallas has long been a hate figure for so many with Celtic leanings, and what has been obvious this week on Celtic message boards, is how they want his body. Professionally at least.

There exists a suspicion, which I have heard from others within the SFA, that this may be the reason why Regan is being subjected to an immediate onslaught .

Therefore there has to be a degree of sympathy for him. Though he did himself no favours by making the trip to Parkhead to see Peter Lawwell, instead of summoning his chief executive counterpart to football's governing body's Hampden headquarters.

Perhaps, as an Englishman abroad, Regan was merely being polite. He will soon find that such  courtesy is often seen as weakness in the often rancid world of Scottish football politics.

He was also out of morder in implying that anyone who had been at the SFA before him may have carried political baggage, and worked to an agenda. But he must be learning fast about the world he has stepped into.

Now, as  far as the allegation concerning any joke email, forwarded by Dallas is concerned, Regan he has issued a statement saying the matter has been investigated, and will be dealt the internally.

But he must hope  the nature and result of that investigation, and how he is dealing with its findings, do not somehow find their way to any foreign based freelance reporter, who would be only too happy to pass them on to the News of the World without worrying about whether or not his name appeared in the paper. Just so long as it was on the cheque.

Regan though may be cute enough to know the way these leaks work, and the fingerprints they leave, and as you read this, could well be laying an electronic trail to trace the leak.

If he doesn't, then Regan and the Scottish Football Association will sink as fast as that enemy battleship went down after the Royal Navy's daring attack.

AND......

ON a sombre note, I was saddened to hear of the death of former Scottish Football Association chief executive, Jim Farry, who also spent a decade as the secretary of the Scottish Football League.

Jim was a good and honest man, who was a great loss to the game in Scotland when he was hounded out of office by Celtic during Fergus McCann's reign. It was the one thing McCann did during his short and eventful time in the game, with which I disagreed.

Jim Farry was missed for many years, and his wise and steady counsel is still being missed today. He wasn't always right, but he was always decent, and even after he departed the SFA I often spoke to him for advice on some of the more arcane ways the organisation operated.

I do not think I ever put the phone down after speaking to Jim without knowing I had been given a valuable and generous insight, and had learned something.

My thoughts are with his family