Scottish FA CEO Stewart Regan "was accused last night of doing the dirty on Scotland’s top-flight clubs after helping to slam the door shut on access to the Champions League," according to Keith Jackson of the Scotland DAILY RECORD. Regan caused "astonishment and anger" in Athens on Wednesday when he voted for Aleksander Ceferin to replace Michel Platini "as UEFA’s new president." The decision to back the Slovenian "flies in the face of the views of the majority of Scotland’s top-flight clubs, who were expecting the SFA to throw its weight behind Dutchman Michael van Praag." And it is understood Regan’s counterparts at the Scottish Professional Football League, led by CEO Neil Doncaster, "are equally staggered by the decision." Van Praag "had promised to rip up controversial plans to restructure UEFA’s elite event as his first act in office if he had won the race to become Platini’s replacement." But Ceferin "has made no such undertaking to scrap the plan" which could potentially starve Scottish football of around £30M ($39.7M) a season. In a "carefully worded statement," the SPFL admitted that "the league had hoped Regan would act in the best interests of its clubs by lending Scotland’s full support to van Praag." While van Praag "was crystal clear on his priority policy to scrap the impending Champions League changes, Ceferin remained a great deal more cagey." But after winning the vote, he insisted he will be prepared to stand up to the super clubs "who were behind the proposed shake-up from season 2018-19" (DAILY RECORD, 9/15).
