A CAMPAIGN to honour Ally MacLeod, the hyperbolic former football manager who led Scotland to arguably its greatest sporting humiliation, has been criticised by one of his successors.

Craig Brown, who led Scotland to Euro 96 and the 1998 World Cup, claims that including MacLeod in the Scottish Football Hall of Fame would amount to rewarding failure.

He said that while it could be argued the strength of MacLeod’s personality deserved to be honoured in some way, he does not merit inclusion on the basis of his ability or his results.

His comments were supported by Alan Rough, the former goalkeeper who played under MacLeod, who said he didn’t deserve to be ranked alongside other great Scottish managers.

The hall of fame was established by the Scottish Football Association (SFA) to “honour the truly great players, managers and officials who have reached the pinnacle of their profession and made a significant contribution to Scotland’s football reputation through their skill, spirit and determination”.

It has 51 members, including managers Sir Alex Ferguson, Sir Matt Busby, Jock Stein and Bill Shankly who, between them, won five European trophies as well as dozens of domestic honours.

MacLeod’s only senior honours were the Scottish Second Division title, which he won with Ayr United in 1969, and the Scottish League Cup, which he won with Aberdeen in 1976.

He is notorious, however, for presiding over Scotland’s catastrophic campaign at the 1978 World Cup in Argentina. Despite convincing normally level-headed Scottish supporters beforehand that his team were destined to lift the trophy, they succumbed to Peru and drew with Iran, neither of whom had bestrode the world football stage before or have done since.

Despite managing a face-saving win against eventual finalists Holland, Scotland skulked home at the end of the group stages, humiliated and demoralised. The humiliation was compounded when Willie Johnston, the Scotland winger, was sent home in disgrace after failing a dope test.

A petition to have MacLeod, who died in 2004, aged 72, after a battle with Alzheimer’s disease, inducted into the hall of fame was launched by the Ayr branch of the Tartan Army. If enough people sign up to it, he will automatically be included on the shortlist to be considered by an SFA committee in September.

However, Brown, Scotland’s longest-serving manager, said the next coach to be honoured should be Alex McLeish, already a hall of fame member for his playing career.

“I love Ally and he was a major personality in Scottish football, but I don’t think you can say in terms of achievement that he deserves to be there.

“If the criteria for inclusion is success in managing the national team, then it should be Alex McLeish. He has the best record of any Scotland manager. He won seven out of 10 games, which is incredible.”

Rough, the Scotland goalkeeper during the 1978 World Cup tournament said: “Achievement-wise, I don’t think Ally comes anywhere near the managers that are in it.

“I think he deserves some kind of landmark in Scottish football for the way he really lifted the nation and got everybody interested in the national team again, but he hasn’t achieved the winning status of the Shanklys and the Jock Steins.”

Richard McBrearty, curator of the Scottish Football Museum, which houses the hall of fame exhibition, said: “Since this is being done by a Tartan Army group, I imagine it will be a very organised campaign, and if Ally MacLeod gets enough nominations, he will form part of the shortlist.

“It will then be up to the committee to decide if he made a significant contribution to Scottish football, and the new inductees will be announced at a dinner in November.”

Such was the frenzy generated by MacLeod ahead of the 1978 tournament, even government ministers were caught up in it.

A letter sent in April 1978 by Kenneth MacKenzie, private secretary to Bruce Millan, the Scottish secretary, to Stephen Wall, prime minister Jim Callaghan’s private secretary, said:

“In the event that Scotland progresses to the final stages of the tournament [the play-off for third and fourth place on Saturday, June 24, and the final the following day] Mr Millan would certainly wish to attend.”

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