Scotland opponents in disarray as Austria coach Franco Foda resigns on eve of match

Scotland’s friendly opponents have been thrown into disarray by their manager resigning a day ahead of their game.

Franco Foda announced he was stepping own from the Austrian national job at his pre-match press conference ahead of Tuesday night’s challenge match.

There has been an underwhelming response to the match in Vienna, which could have been a World Cup play-off decider but Wales’ win over Foda’s side in last week’s semi-final – and Scotland’s postponed match with Ukraine altered plans and set up a friendly alternative instead.

His decision is the latest twist during a disrupted and uncertain international week, and the coach admitted his side’s failure to qualify for Qatar had made up his mind and he will hand over “a team with impeccable character”.

Franco Foda, manager of Austria has resigned. A friendly against Scotland will be his final game in charge. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

“I’ve been thinking a lot over the past few days,” Foda said. “I finally made my decision yesterday evening.

“It was still rumoured that I might have had the option of extending my contract. But that didn’t matter to me anymore, because I took responsibility for [the defeat to Wales and failure to qualify for the World Cup].

“It was a great honour for me to coach and work with this team. It was four-and-a-half great years.

“My successor can look forward to a team with impeccable character that is good and has a lot of potential for development.”

Austria reached the knock-out stages of Euro 2020 but won't be heading to Qatar. (Photo by Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images)

Scotland will be his final game – and were part of his final qualification campaign, drawing 2-2 at Hampden and losing to a Lyndon Dykes penalty in September. The result meant Austria finished behind Steve Clarke’s team and Denmark in Group, but qualified for the play-offs via the Nations League.

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