Football news: New rules for firing managers

The Scottish Managers and Coaches Association has held discussions with the SFA, SPL and SFL which threaten to change forever how clubs go about the business of hiring and firing managers.

Under new proposals, chairmen won't be allowed to sack managers unless they have served two-thirds of their contracts and they will also be banned from appointing a successor until compensation with the previous incumbent is agreed.

Former St Mirren, Aberdeen and Dundee United boss Alex Smith, the chairman of the SMCA, decided to initiate talks with the game's governing bodies after Willie McStay was dismissed by Ross County last month after just nine matches in charge.

They've backed his suggestions and Smith insists that adding them to the SFA's Articles of Association will be a progressive move for the Scottish game.

"What happened with Willie prompted the talks," said Smith, now Steven Pressley's No2 at Falkirk. "There you had a man who played the game at a high level for 15 years and then spent seven years earning his coaching badges.

"He had been Celtic's most successful reserve-team coach and managed in Hungary. After all that he passed an interview to get the job only to be sacked less than three months later. That's unacceptable. Some chairmen treat their clubs like a toy but they can't get away with that any longer. This isn't fantasy football, we're talking about people's livelihoods. If the SFA want to promote football in the 21st century then they're going to have to bring these chairmen to heel and all the indications are that they're willing to do that."

Smith is confident that the proposals will gain the necessary support from clubs at the SFA's AGM this summer and he's been encouraged by the backing he's had from its chief executive Stewart Regan and his counterparts at the SPL, Neil Doncaster and David Longmuir at the SFL.

"What we're looking at is a code of conduct for clubs when it comes to managers and coaches," said Smith. "The idea is that they can't be sacked until they have served at least two-thirds of the term of their contract unless it's for gross misconduct.

"On top of that we want to introduce the system which operates in the English Premier League, whereby a club must agree to settle up with the manager they wish to dismiss before they can appoint someone else in his place.

"I'm hoping these proposals will be on the statute books by the start of next season."