STEWART Regan, the SFA chief executive, last night refused to accept any personal responsibility for Scotland’s failure to reach the Russia 2018 finals following the departure of manager Gordon Strachan.

Regan faced the media at Hampden yesterday to explain the governing body’s decision not to renew Strachan’s contract and discuss their plans to recruit a successor who can secure a place at Euro 2020.

He praised Strachan for taking the country to “within 45 minutes” of the World Cup - but revealed he had been given the ultimatum of reaching the play-offs following the 3-0 defeat to England at Wembley last November.

The 53-year-old stated that “football is a results business” and stressed the SFA board felt that “a new impetus and a new coach to try and get us to Euro 2020” after two unsuccessful campaigns.

The national team has been unable to progress to the finals of four major tournaments since Regan succeeded Gordon Smith back in 2010, but he denied that he needed to consider his position in the wake of this latest failure.

“It’s not about me,” he said. “I think there is collective responsibility whenever you run an organisation where you’re looking at targets and looking at achievements.

“As a board we are responsible for trying to put in place all of the necessary processes, people, resources both financial and otherwise, in order to try and get there.

“We have come very close to making progress, unfortunately it hasn’t been enough. It’s our responsibility as a board to try and do what we think is the right thing to do to get us to the next level. That’s what we’ve done as a board, that’s the next step.

“It's about putting in place a plan to get Scotland to a major finals. The board has a responsibility and it's a judgement call. It was a judgement call yesterday to do what we think is right for the game and that's what we've done.”

The SFA, who hope to have Strachan’s replacement in place for their opening game in the new UEFA Nations League in September next year, will charge the new Scotland manager with clinching a place at Euro 2020, which will be partially staged in Scotland.

Asked if he would stand down if the national team were unable to achieve their objective next time around, he said: “This is not about me. This is about us as a board, planning and the resources that we’ve got to do the right thing. We will continue to do that, to put in place the right plans to get those results.

“We were 45 minutes away from qualifying for the play-offs which would been a remarkable achievement give where we were this time last year.”

Meanwhile, Regan denied the SFA had acted after Strachan had lost the backing of the Tartan Army. “Not at all,” he said. “It was a much broader discussion about key facts. I spent time with fans on Saturday and Sunday in Slovenia and the atmosphere was great.

“Everyone was on a real high after the Slovakia result and that’s why it was so disappointing.”