By FOS Editor
June 7 2011

The Scottish FA members today unanimously agreed radical and historic change to the governance and structures of Scottish football.

All resolutions put before the AGM at Hampden today were accepted in full, including changes to the board structure, committee structure and the introduction of a new Judicial Panel to deal with all disciplinary matters.

Also voted through are Articles of Association which give greater protection and support to referees, empowering the Judicial Panel to sanction any public comments regarding referees and also to deal with any harassment of match officials.

It was also confirmed that the former vice president, Campbell Ogilvie, has been elected President, with Alan McRae elected first vice-president and Rod Petrie second vice-president.

The main changes accepted by the 93 members of the Scottish FA today are:

• The Board will be reduced from 11 to 7, incorporating an independent board member and becoming a more strategic, rather than representative, Board. The Board will focus on matters of corporate strategy and top-line decision-making
  
  * The committee structure will be collapsed - including Disciplinary, General Purposes, Emergency - and an audit committee will be formed to ensure we act in line with best practice from a corporate governance perspective
  
  * The Disciplinary Procedures will be rewritten and a new Judicial Panel will be convened, led by a new Compliance Officer, to deal expediently with all disciplinary matters across Scottish FA jurisdiction.
  
  * This will be semi-autonomous from the Scottish FA for purposes of transparency
  
  * The Articles of Association will be rewritten
  
  * Two new operational Boards will be created underneath the main Board - the Professional Game Board and Non-Professional Game Board. This will enable greater efficiency of decision and allow those involved in Professional and Non-Professional game to focus solely on matters under their umbrella
  
  * In four years time, the Second Vice Presidency role will disappear, replaced by a second independent Board member
  
  The changes agreed today will form part of a new Scottish FA strategic plan: Scotland United - A 2020 Vision.

This will be founded on the following strategic pillars:

* Performance – with focus on elite talent and coaching development including National Teams qualification for major championships and world class coaching and refereeing

* Strong, Quality Growth - broadening the game at grassroots level across the spectrum of football, including referee recruitment

* Greater Financial Returns

* Trusted and Respected to Lead

What does this all mean? I am not sure what it means, it seems a bit too formal for me, but everybody seems to think this is the way forward and will make the SFA much more transparent!

No matter what has happened in the past the SFA have always been accused of being incompetent, biased, amateurish etc etc. We will have to wait and see if these changes make any essential difference.