No need for Driver to make decision until he's been selected, says Smith

Published on Wednesday 4 November 2009 21:54

ANDY Driver should not be pressurised into deciding which country he wants to play for, Gordon Smith said yesterday.

Smith, the chief executive of the Scottish Football Association, has overruled national team manager George Burley on the issue, so that the governing body now has a more sympathetic approach towards the Hearts winger.

Driver, who was born in Oldham and has one cap for England Under-21s, could play for the full Scotland side thanks to the new agreement between the four home countries. Brokered by Smith, the agreement states that anyone who has been in a country's educational system for five years or more can opt to play for that country.

Having moved to North Berwick with his family a decade ago, Driver qualifies under that criterion, but said this week that he wanted more time before plumping for Scotland or England. Smith said yesterday he sympathised with the player and saw no reason to try to rush him into a decision.

"Before the criteria change, Andy had the opportunity to play for England," Smith said. "At the moment, once again, he's in a situation where he's capable of playing for both nations at this stage.

"I don't think the lad should be put under any pressure whatsoever at this stage to come out and make any declaration. The whole situation will have to be decided upon if he's chosen for either country: that's when he's got a decision to make. That could come from Scotland first or it could come from England. Until he's going to be in a situation where he's going to be actually selected, I don't think the boy should be put under any pressure to make any choice whatsoever."

When the issue first arose, Burley said Driver would have to commit himself to Scotland before being selected. Smith has now decided that will not be necessary. "I think George was probably pressurised a little bit into saying that," he continued.

"George maybe thinks it would be nice if he (Driver] went public and did that, but I don't think that there's a requirement. And I spoke to George about it, and we've said that until such times as the lad will be picked there's no point in us going down that line and talking about it."

That time will almost certainly not come about today, when the Scotland squad for next week's friendly in Wales is announced. As Driver himself has said, he has not been in the form to earn a national call-up.

"I don't know what the squad is going to be tomorrow, but if he's not in it why does he have to be asked all the time if he's going to play for us?" Smith continued. "It's a bit unfair on the lad. It shouldn't arise until such times as he's in contention to be chosen."

Having come under fire for the decision to play a friendly in Japan, Smith is confident the same number of call-offs from the squad will not take place before the game against Wales.

"Hopefully (there will be fewer] call-offs. I don't think the call-offs were necessarily because the game was in Japan. The call-offs as far as we know were all genuine.

"We're delighted to have a friendly against a good level of opposition. We hope to go down there and put in a good performance.

"You're trying to win the game, but if you win the game and don't play well, what do you take out of it? It may help your coefficient at some stage, but I think you need to look at performance as well as your result.

"Maybe one or two of the lads who got their first caps in Japan could be playing again, so we'll see what they're like with a different group of players.

"We've only got two more friendlies before the end of the season – this one and March – and then after that it will be whatever we arrange for May."