Steve Clarke is done. The Scottish Football Association confirmed his resignation just minutes after Scotland’s World Cup exit became official on Saturday.
It wasn’t pretty, and it didn’t take long. Scotland finished third in a group with Brazil, Morocco and Haiti. That alone wasn’t a death sentence — the third-place table still offered a lifeline. But then Ghana lost to Croatia. And with that result, McTominay and the boys mathematically couldn’t sneak into the round of 16 as one of the four best third-place teams.
So Clarke walked.
He took over the national team in 2019, way before anyone expected Scotland to be talking seriously about World Cup qualification. But he built something. It wasn’t always flashy. It was steady. Year by year, the results crept upward. A draw here. A win there. Eventually Scotland punched its ticket to the World Cup for the first time in what felt like forever. That was supposed to be the ceiling, the crowning achievement.
And in a way, it still is. Getting to the tournament was the highlight of Clarke’s tenure, and it’ll probably be the thing people remember most when they look back. But qualifying is one thing. Actually competing at the World Cup is another animal entirely. Scotland won one game in the group stage and couldn’t get the results they needed elsewhere. The margin was thin. But thin doesn’t keep you alive in a knockout tournament.
Who takes over? That’s the question nobody has answered yet. The SFA hasn’t tipped its hand. There’s no obvious candidate waiting in the wings, at least not one they’ve admitted publicly.
Clarke’s exit is clean. No messy drawn-out farewell tour. Just a statement from the federation, a quiet departure, and a team that now has to figure out what comes next. The World Cup dream is over. So is the Clarke era. One ended a few minutes before the other.
It was the right time. Or maybe it was the only time left. Either way, Scotland is looking for a new coach.
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