SFA silent, but Vogts looks to be on his way next week

SCOTTISH Football Association powerbrokers met for two-and-a-half hours to discuss the future of national manager Berti Vogts yesterday but any official announcement looks set for Tuesday.

The SFA declined to make any official comment after the meeting, which was not a full board assembly, broke up.

All 11 members are required to be present to vote on a decision of the magnitude of relieving a manager of his post, but that looks likely to be Vogts’ fate next week.

The German has been a ‘lame duck’ manager ever since Scotland failed to win last week in Moldova, with a 1-1 draw a hefty blow to their hopes of reaching the World Cup finals in two years’ time.

It is understood that the SFA’s five top officials met at the national stadium with Vogts’ future at the top of the agenda.

SFA president John McBeth, chief executive David Taylor and the three vice-presidents, George Peat, Campbell Ogilvie and John Smith, were all in attendance.

With huge sections of the Tartan Army calling for Vogts to be removed from the post, the SFA hierarchy are under pressure to act.

But the one-time World Cup winner has not resigned his position, despite the weight of opinion against him remaining as Scotland boss.

Dismissing Vogts would mean a compensation package that could be a six-figure sum, which must be finalised with the German’s Swiss-based lawyer Andi Gross.

SFA spokesman Andy Mitchell did break cover once during the afternoon but did issue a terse statement condemning a national tabloid newspaper, who had earlier arrived at Hampden for a publicity stunt.

A reporter clutching petitions from readers calling for Vogts to be sacked carried a home-made coffin bearing the inscription "Scotland’s World Cup dreams. RIP" up the steps.

Mitchell said: "At a time when our servicemen are laying their lives on the line in the Gulf it is in the worst possible taste to suggest that football is about life and death in this way."