Chick Young's view

By Chick Young BBC Scotland football correspondent

The Scottish Football Association couldn't spell PR.

This isn't a new development, because - for as long as I can remember - football's ruling body has been a distant relative of public relations, with secretaries like George Graham and WP Allen and Jim Farry who were either a vision in cobwebs and quill pens or fluent in the kind of language that was last used in Victorian drawing-rooms.

Honest, the boys down at my local just can't stop themselves discussing articles of association over a pint.

Of course Tommy Burns should have been offered the job that Walter Smith had left behind. And he sure as hell should have been kept up to speed about what was going on.

But those who want to lynch chief executive David Taylor clearly like a bit of target practice with the messenger.

Let me try to explain how the SFA works, although to be fair I might be quicker dissecting the theory of relativity.

John McBeth and David Taylor are at the top of the SFA

Taylor is the hired hand who is manoeuvred by the board, persuaded, nudged and cajoled in the direction of a decision made by committee, never - in my humble opinion - a good thing.

Business isn't run Sir David Murray-esque, where one man with all the power makes his move and pounces, cobra like, to snatch his target.

He burgled Walter Smith from the SFA and I'll bet no-one at Hampden had even noticed he was missing. They were probably still leaving cups of coffee on his desk.

To be fair to Taylor, he has tried to drag the association kicking and screaming into the 21st century, although - when he took over - I'm not sure it had really even entered the 20th. It wasn't a secretary and chief executive they needed, it was a Time Lord, but even Dr Who would have washed his hands of that mission.

Most fans in Scotland don't respect the national association. Even more have no idea how it works. It might help if they spoke the same language.

For a start, they could start employing football people.

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Once upon a time, television companies and radio stations couldn't quite see the point of employing former players, but slowly it dawned on them that guys who had been steeped in the game, who had paid their mortgage by actually playing, might have something to offer. It's an observation that the chaps at Hampden might want to take on board.

And don't mess about by employing a glorified office boy.

John McBeth - who cut his administrating talents with Clyde - is nearing the end of his tenure as president and will be succeeded in the job by the current first vice-president, George Peat, once of Airdrie.

Scotland international legend Kenny Dalglish should be a candidate

Previous incumbents have included the chairmen of clubs like Partick Thistle and Queen of the South, not in itself a crime, of course. There is as worthy a job to be done there as in football's big time.

But here is my point. Is it not time to raise the profile of the whole association by appointing a genuine legend of the game in this country into the top job.

In France, they have had Michel Platini in the exalted position. In Germany, Franz Beckenbauer. Perhaps you catch my drift.

It's unlikely to happen here. Can you imagine in days to come Walter Smith or Gordon Strachan being appointed to top office? On the same day that air traffic control gives landing clearance to a squadron of flying pork, I would suggest.

Why, for example, has Willie Miller never been considered? Or Billy McNeill, or Kenny Dalglish?

In one fell swoop, in one flash of spin doctoring, they would buy credibility, public approval and a figurehead to whom the fans could relate. Someone who could understand the need to communicate and who could relate with the national manager - and any candidates for his job should he walk out.

Straightforward common sense, if you ask me. Which will make it an immediate non-starter at Hampden of course.