No matter which countries announce their intention to boycott the World Cup, Scotland will not be one of them. Former English FA chairman David Bernstein has called for a European boycott of the competition unless FIFA agrees to "proper reform". SFA chief executive Stewart Regan effectively said count us out when he said Scotland will not be taking part in any boycott of the 2018 World Cup. Bernstein was appointed FA chairman in January 2011 after England's bid to host the 2018 tournament ended in failure. The bidding process for 2018 and 2022 has since been investigated by lawyer Michael Garcia, who complained last week that his report had been misrepresented by FIFA's top ethics judge Hans-Joachim Eckert, who cleared successful bidders Russia and Qatar of wrongdoing while criticising England's campaign team.
Regan said: "Scotland is a small country, Scotland on it's own, particularly when it hasn't played in the World Cup for so many years, I think it would be rather churlish of us to stand up and say we are going to boycott the World Cup as well. It's about working together with the other 53 associations in Europe to actually come up with a plan and to show some strength. UEFA is the strongest and most powerful of all the confederations and FIFA needs to recognise that it has got that strength and hopefully that might persuade people to come to the table and listen."