Steve Clarke became the manager of Scotland’s national team in 2019. He had a good coaching background, but he didn’t have the kind of fame that usually comes with national team jobs. After that, they qualified for three tournaments in four tries, a generation of players found faith again, and fans who had almost given up hope for anything. This may have made him the best men’s manager Scotland has ever had. Even so, he was said to be making around £500,000 a year during most of it.
It tells you something about how much money is made in international football at this level. That number was confirmed around the time of Euro 2024. Most of the time, that’s not a small salary. That number isn’t nearly as big when you compare it to how much Premier League managers get paid, which is usually millions of pounds or even more. That number likely went up when Clarke signed a new four-year deal before the 2026 World Cup. There is still a big difference between what the Scottish FA can offer and what the market will bear at the top level.
Seeing how everything is going, it seems like the SFA has known for a while that they are not as wealthy as the clubs they sometimes try to steal players from. The decision to bring Clarke in from Kilmarnock showed both how practical the search was and how much money the team had. Everything turned out really well. Right now, it’s really not clear if lightning strikes twice.
Clarke’s resignation after Scotland was knocked out of the World Cup raised questions that the SFA may not have fully thought through. A lot of people started using names like Ange Postecoglou and David Moyes. They were both Scottish, trustworthy, but made very different amounts of money. Postecoglou was reportedly making about £5 million a year at Tottenham before he moved to Nottingham Forest, where he was reportedly making £3 million a season for even a short time. Moyes, who is in the last year of a multimillion-pound contract with Everton, once said he’d think about the Scotland job “at the right time.” At least in terms of money, that time hasn’t come yet.
Former Scotland striker Kris Boyd made it clear on Sky Sports: the SFA can’t pay wages that are competitive with those in the Premier League. Being cynical is not the answer; it’s math. It also makes you think about what kind of candidate the Scottish FA can really go after and whether ambition and budget can work together.
What makes Clarke’s time in office worth thinking about in detail is that he got results that could not have been guaranteed by his pay. Three campaigns that qualify. A group of players, like Robertson, McGinn, and McTominay, were at their best when they were managed by someone they trusted. Staff and players working together like that doesn’t happen very often, and it’s not just because of money.
In a way, the Steve Clarke salary story is about what you can and can’t buy in Scottish football. It can help you find a dedicated, experienced professional who is willing to put money into your project. It’s not likely that it can fire a Premier League manager in the middle of their hire. That says a lot about the SFA’s ideas about where they think the national team should go: whether they accept those limits or try to go beyond them.
Clarke, on the other hand, reportedly got a bonus of double his salary every time Scotland made it through a campaign phase. This was a system that rewarded the exact kind of progress he made. If the SFA wants to keep getting good candidates, it’s possible that future contracts will have to be more like that model.
Scotland will now look for a new manager knowing that the bar has been raised and that they may have to raise the money even more to match it on the field.
