Duncan Ferguson has opened up on his “biggest regret” of ending his Scotland career over a bitter SFA feud, claiming it cost up to 200 caps.
And the former striker admitted he was seriously temped to end his self-imposed international exile when his former Rangers boss Walter Smith and ex-Ibrox team-mate Ally McCoist took charge in 2004. Ferguson won just seven caps for Scotland over a seven-year spell from 1992 but retired in 1997 in protest after the SFA tried to hammer him with a 12-game ban on top of his 44-day jail sentence for head butting Raith Rovers defender Jock McStay.
The infamous on-field assault took place in April 1994 as Rangers took on the Fifers at Ibrox. And Ferguson, who went on to enjoy a career at the top level in England during two spells with Everton which sandwiched a stint at Newcastle United, admits he regrets it now.
Speaking on boxer and Evertonian Tony Bellew’s podcast on BBC 5Live Sport, the 51-year-old who has recently been appointed boss of Forest Green Rovers, said: “Absolutely the biggest regret of my career is not playing for Scotland. That’s my biggest regret and it was my pigheadedness because I thought what happened to me was a total injustice. It wasn’t just the prison - when I came out of prison the SFA asked me to serve another 12-game ban
“I’d been in the jug. I did the seven weeks out of the three months and missed ‘X’ amount of games. I came out and the SFA asked me to serve another 12 game ban on top of what I’d already done.
“It wasn’t enough for them so I then had to go to the courts and fight my case and say it was like double jeopardy, or whatever it’s called. I’d been to prison, done a bit of bird and lost a lot of games and they wanted me to do another 12 games.
“I actually won my case. I never served those games so when I came out the jail that was it ended and I got on with my football but I got the hump with the SFA wanting me to serve their ban. But I regret it now because I should have played 200 times for Scotland.
“They asked me every year for 14 years. They asked me every year until I was 34. Ally McCoist phoned me up at 10 o’clock one night and said ‘Big man, come back, we’re playing Italy in a World Cup qualifier and you’ll play’. With Walter as manager I was tempted because I loved him, a great man who unfortunately isn’t with us. He was a lovely man, a great fella and a gentleman. And I really thought about it then, and with Ally being there as well, but I was just pigheaded. I’d put a line in the sand and that’s my biggest regret - not playing for my country.”
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