Scottish Football Association
Roxburgh was appointed as the Scottish Football Association's first Director of Coaching in 1975. He led the player and coach development work in Scotland for over 18 years – coaches such as José Mourinho studied under Roxburgh and he also helped to develop talents such as Paul McStay.
This appointment meant that Roxburgh also coached the Scotland youth teams from Under 21 level down. He was in charge of the Scotland national under-19 football team that won the 1982 UEFA European Under-18 Football Championship. Scotland beat Czechoslovakia 3–1 in the final, played in Helsinki. In addition under Roxburgh’s tenure, Scotland reached the semi-finals at the 1978 UEFA Under-18 Championship and was a group winner in the 1983 FIFA Under-20 World Cup final round.
After the Scotland 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. He 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, ahead of more experienced and better known candidates such as Billy McNeill, Jim McLean, Kenny Dalglish and Tommy Docherty. Roxburgh would remain in the role for more than seven years.
Scotland failed to qualify for UEFA Euro 1988, but Roxburgh then guided Scotland to qualification for the 1990 FIFA World Cup. Scotland defeated Argentina in a pre-tournament friendly, but were eliminated in the group stage with one win (against Sweden) and two losses.
The team then qualified for UEFA Euro 1992, the first time Scotland had qualified for a European championship finals. Roxburgh resigned in September 1993, following 61 matches in charge, after failing to achieve qualification for the 1994 FIFA World Cup. He was succeeded by his assistant, Craig Brown.
Read more about this topic: Andy Roxburgh
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—18th-century Scottish proverb, collected in J. Kelly, Complete Collection of Scottish Proverbs (1721)
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