The Scottish Football Association have defended their selection process after appointing George Burley as manager.
Peat and Smith hit back at press
The Scottish Football Association have defended their selection process after appointing George Burley as manager.
The former Southampton boss, who has signed a four-and-a-half-year deal, was presented to the media at Hampden Park on Thursday afternoon.
Burley was the unanimous choice of the SFA's four-man selection panel, with Mark McGhee, Graeme Souness and Tommy Burns the other candidates.
The press conference to unveil Burley at times became fractious and heated with SFA president George Peat and chief executive Gordon Smith less than impressed with some members of the assembled media.
Peat began the afternoon by setting the record straight over what had actually happened during the recruitment process.
Emphasise
He told
Sky Sports News: "The board has been criticised in some quarters over the method of recruitment, but I would just like to point out that the same process was used in the appointment of Walter Smith and Alex McLeish.
"Some reporters had said that of our preferred candidates, several had withdrawn. I would like to point out that nobody withdrew.
"I would also emphasise that the decision of the selection committee was unanimous."
Then, midway through the press conference, Smith cut across the reporters' questions to make the following point.
He said: "It's interesting there are so many questions here for George and you're all here taking the answers.
"It's been astonishing over the last few days where people have been saying 'what's the point of interviewing people for a manager's job?'
"You're all asking questions now. Don't you think it was appropriate that when we were interviewing people we asked questions in terms of what George was going to do, and how the guys were going to take the job forward?
"One or two people in the press have been making astonishing claims that there's no point in asking anybody questions. Has anyone got anything to say on that?"
Farce
Later, with Burley shifting nervously in his seat and appearing slightly uncomfortable with the events unfolding around him, Smith and Peat again became embroiled with the press over their selection process.
With Smith defending the sequence of events which saw Burley's appointment officially confirmed on Thursday lunchtime, even though it was common knowledge prior to that, one journalist suggested that the focus of the day had slipped.
Smith responded: "What's becoming a laughing stock? I'm answering the question."
And Peat added: "Who created the farce? Do you think we created the farce?
"We didn't create the rumours, we adopted the same process as we've always done. It was the press who were creating all the stories. We didn't create the stories."
