13 hours ago
I was told I'd get football stopped and I did – Inside Hampden's sixth floor with SFA's peacetime general
The chief executive has had some challenges to overcome but he's had an easier ride than some who have been in the role
Scottish football loves a bogeyman. A fall guy. The man or woman to blame when things go off the rails.
And they usually reside on Hampden's sixth floor.
SPFL chief exec Neil Doncaster has made a career out of being a piñata for our clubs. The one dangled out for the fans to beat with sticks, even when in reality, he's only doing their bidding.
In previous years, the under-fire SPFL chief usually has his SFA counterpart for company when it comes to joint custody of the Public Enemy No.1 title.
Just ask Stewart Regan.
The pair of them got caned more times in public over the years than a Victorian school boy.
Doncaster still happily takes the rough without much smooth in his role but it's been a far less tortuous experience for Ian Maxwell at the SFA.
Regan had the referees strike, the Rangers crisis, a Scotland team stumbling from one disaster to the next and the bumbling over appointing managers.
By the end it didn't take much to topple him.
In contrast, Maxwell made it seven years in the gig this month and he's managed to avoid the campaigns for his head from various sections of Scotland's wild football community.
The former Partick Thistle centre-half and chief exec has been more of a peacetime general.
Sure, there have been testing moments. VAR has been a tricky one.
Admitting it was going to be a short term disaster before it came in was an eye-opener but proved to be accurate.
Then there was Covid nearly killing our game. But Maxwell has steered the SFA through those storms and has the air of a peace time general with the national team qualifying for the Euros twice after a generation of misery.
The 50-year-old looks comfortable and confident in a role that has sent some men doolally.
Maxwell said: 'Do you know what, it's been brilliant, It's amazing, frustrating and nuts in the same 15 minutes, it really is, it's been amazing.
'I've been so lucky, you look at the back-to-back year stuff, I get to do some unbelievable things.
'You have to deal with some unbelievable stuff from the other perspective, there are bits of it that are really tough, but that's like every job, because it's quite high profile.
'When I meet people I say, listen, I can't work any more hours than you do, I can't work any harder than you do.
'If something goes wrong, I'm in the front of the paper, that's how it works.
'Once you get your head round that, it's brilliant.
'I think the association is in a good place, and I'm not taking all the credit for that by any stretch of the imagination.
'But it's been a really enjoyable period, there's a lot of time into that,
'Everybody that's sat in that chair thinks we qualify for a tournament and it changes the game, and I've been fortunate enough to do that twice, since I've been in post, so it's been brilliant, really lucky.'
Enjoyable is not a word his predecessor would have used. But it's also about Maxwell's own view of what the job actually is.
Hiring and firing managers and trying to figure out how to get the national production line firing is only a part of it.
Maxwell said: 'I think that's just the way you take it. It's hard, it's frustrating, there are bits that drive you daft, but I get to do some amazing things and meet brilliant people and see the work that we do as an association.
'It's funny, when I talk about the association, we've got 170-180 staff up the stairs, we'll have 20 that work at the elite level of football, from a week-to-week point of view.
'The vast majority get out of bed to go and literally save a life, make an impact, do something different, and once you start to get that understanding of what we actually do, why we're here as an association, that changes the way you think about football.
'You see the impact that the Extra Time Program, the government has just given us £5.5 million of funding, that's going to impact 5,000 kids, we're going to use 53 clubs to help deliver that, that's a pre-school and post-school service that kids can go and get some football activity, they get a bit of food that they don't get. It's when you hear all these stories that it actually brings to life what football does.
'Everybody gets focused on, is Steve Clarke going to be here after the World Cup?
'Actually, there are kids that are getting a meal, which is far more important for us as an association.
'There's kids that we're able to feed because of the programs that we've got, because of the engagement that we've got. People aren't really aware of that, people don't think in that way, whether we shout about it enough, whether it's hard to shout about it, I don't really know. It's those bits that get you out of bed in the morning that's making that difference.'
The mention of covid still gives Maxwell cold sweats though.
He said: 'When you look back at it, coming out of that with the same number of clubs and getting football back the way that we did, that was just such unbelievable two years. It was mental.
'I remember the day we decided to stop football.
'I think it was Darryl (Broadfoot, communications chief) who said people were watching you for years thinking he could get football stopped – and then I actually did it!'
"There were definitely points because everything was just so uncertain. Were there fears some clubs wouldn't survive? Absolutely That's definitely a chapter in the book - the Covid years.'
Maxwell isn't being chased by pitched forks and he's in no hurry to run either.
He said: 'We've got Euro 2028, which is massive for us. It'll be a really proud moment to see that being hosted here. That'll be huge.
'We're not quite confirmed yet, but we're the only bidder for the Women's World Cup in 2035, which seems like a long time away, but it's probably not.
'I'll be 60 by that point, which is a bit scary. I don't know. I'm loving what I'm doing. There's certainly lots to be getting our teeth into.'
