Andy Roxburgh

Andrew Roxburgh^[2] (born 5 August 1943) is a Scottish former football player and manager currently serving as an administrator. Roxburgh's entire professional playing career was spent in the Scottish Football League. After retiring as a player, he was appointed as the Scottish Football Association's first Director of Coaching. He achieved success with the national youth teams, winning the 1982 UEFA European Under-18 Football Championship. Andrew Roxburgh spent many happy years as a senior Primary Teacher at Carolside School in Clarkston, Glasgow and was very much respected for his devotion to teaching.

Roxburgh was appointed Scotland manager in 1986 and achieved qualification for two major tournaments, the 1990 FIFA World Cup and UEFA Euro 1992. He resigned as Scotland manager in 1993 after failing to qualify for the 1994 FIFA World Cup. Roxburgh was appointed UEFA technical director in 1994 and held this position until accepting a role as sporting director for American club New York Red Bulls from 2012 to 2014.^[3]

He currently serves as a Technical Director with the Asian Football Confederation. ^[4]

Roxburgh attended Bellahouston Academy, where he was selected for the first team at just 15 years of age.^[5] He played for Glasgow Schools and was a schoolboy and youth internationalist.^[6] In 1961, he scored the only goal in a schoolboy international against England Schools at Celtic Park.^[5]

From 1961 to 1963 Roxburgh played for Queen's Park, where he won the Scottish Amateur Cup and was capped by the Scottish national amateur team.

Roxburgh then moved to East Stirlingshire,^[6] where he played the 1964–65 season, before arriving at First Division club Partick Thistle, where he was to stay until the end of the 1968–69 season. In 1966, 25-year-old Roxburgh qualified as a Scottish Football Association coach.^[5]

Falkirk then signed Roxburgh, where he teamed up in attack with Alex Ferguson. At the end of the 1969–70 season, Falkirk were crowned Second Division champions and promoted to the First Division. Roxburgh remained at Falkirk until the end of the 1971–72 season.

Roxburgh finished his top flight playing career at Clydebank, where he was player-coach from 1973 to 1975. During the latter part of his professional playing career, Roxburgh (a physical education graduate), was also employed as a primary school headteacher.^[7]

Roxburgh was appointed as the Scottish Football Association's first Director of Coaching in 1975.^[8] He led the player and coach development work in Scotland for over 18 years – coaches such as José Mourinho^[9] studied under Roxburgh and he also helped to develop talents such as Paul McStay.^[10]

This appointment meant that Roxburgh also coached the Scotland youth teams from Under-21 level down.^[8][11] He was in charge of the Scotland Under-19 side that won the 1982 UEFA European Under-18 Football Championship, beating Czechoslovakia 3–1 in the final, played in Helsinki. In addition, under Roxburgh's tenure Scotland reached the semi-finals at the 1978 UEFA European Under-18 Championship and was a group winner in the 1983 FIFA World Youth Championship final round.^[12]

After the Scotland senior manager Jock Stein collapsed and died at the end of a 1–1 draw in a 1986 FIFA World Cup qualification match against Wales, Alex Ferguson was appointed as the team manager and guided Scotland to the 1986 World Cup by winning a playoff against Australia. Scotland failed to progress beyond the group stage of the World Cup and Ferguson rejected the offer of staying on as Scotland manager afterwards. Roxburgh was subsequently named as the new Scotland manager on 16 July 1986,^[12] ahead of more experienced and better known candidates such as Billy McNeill, Jim McLean, Kenny Dalglish and Tommy Docherty.^[13] Roxburgh would remain in the role for more than seven years.^[11]

Escocia no logró clasificarse para la Eurocopa de la UEFA de 1988 , pero Roxburgh luego guió al equipo a la clasificación para la Copa Mundial de la FIFA de 1990. [ ^{14 ] Escocia} derrotó a Argentina en un amistoso previo al torneo, ^{[ 15 ]} pero fue eliminada en la fase de grupos con una victoria (contra Suecia ) y dos derrotas.

El equipo se clasificó para la Eurocopa de la UEFA de 1992 , la primera vez que Escocia se clasificaba para una fase final de un campeonato europeo. [ ^{11 ] [ 16 ] Una} vez más, perdieron dos y ganaron uno de sus partidos de la fase de grupos del torneo y fueron eliminados. Roxburgh renunció en septiembre de 1993, tras 61 partidos al mando, después de no lograr la clasificación para la Copa Mundial de la FIFA de 1994. ^{[ 11 ]} Fue sucedido por su asistente, Craig Brown . ^{[ 11 ]}

Roxburgh fue nombrado primer director técnico de la UEFA en 1994. ^{[ 16 ]} Ocupó este cargo hasta el final de su contrato en 2012. ^{[ 16 ]} Durante su tiempo en la UEFA, Roxburgh estableció el marco para el Convenio de la UEFA sobre el Reconocimiento Mutuo de las Cualificaciones de Entrenador , que ahora incluye a las 53 asociaciones miembro de la UEFA. ^{[ 17 ]}

Roxburgh también impulsó la Carta de Base de la UEFA para estimular a las asociaciones miembro de la UEFA a invertir más en la base del juego y reconocer la importancia de una base saludable. ^{[ 17 ]} Como parte de la administración de la UEFA, Roxburgh fue miembro de la junta directiva, ^{[ 18 ]} presidió los paneles JIRA y de Base, y fue responsable de las competiciones juveniles de la UEFA, el departamento de arbitraje y las unidades de fútbol femenino, fútbol sala y medicina. Además, también dirigió las conferencias, cursos y foros de élite de la UEFA para entrenadores nacionales, entrenadores de la Liga de Campeones de la UEFA, formadores de entrenadores, entrenadores juveniles, entrenadores de fútbol femenino, líderes de base, entrenadores de fútbol sala y médicos de equipo.

Roxburgh ha trabajado con la FIFA como miembro de su Comité Técnico, como instructor de la FIFA y como miembro del Grupo de Estudio Técnico en seis Copas Mundiales de la FIFA ('86, '94, '98, '02, '06, '10). ^{[ 19 ]}

• Gerente del Año de la SFWA : 1989–90 ^{[ 20 ]}
• Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to association football – 1993.^[21]
• National Playing Fields Association, MacRobert Thistle Award for his outstanding contribution to football – 1990^[20]
• Tartan Special Manager of the Month – November 1989^[22]

• The contradiction of Andy Roxburgh, the failure who took Scotland to two major tournaments, These Football Times, 3 June 2019