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THERE’S a dangerous culture of denial and self preservation taking hold on Hampden’s sixth floor.

Dare to point out where Stewart Regan and his merry band of blazers are getting it wrong and you’re accused of having an agenda. Be bold enough to actually highlight their incompetence and you’re perpetrating a witch-hunt

It’s known as playing the victim card and over these last few years of Scottish football’s decline few have played it better, or more often for that matter, than Regan.

The chief executive is again adopting the Teflon position despite overseeing an absolute farce on Friday night as the Scotland team were stranded in Tbilisi when they should have been whisked back to base camp to brace themselves for the extreme challenge of world champions Germany.

That they got no sympathy from the foot soldiers who had followed them to Georgia was, perhaps, understandable.

And in the grand scheme of things, amidst a refugee crisis and deadly conflicts, it does feel petty to be banging on about pampered sportsmen missing a charter plane.

Some in the Tartan Army would have been happy had Gordon Strachan and his squad been forced to walk it home after the 1-0 defeat.

The punters had a point. Scotland let them down. But, equally, Strachan and his men were then treated atrociously by the very people who were supposed to be in their corner.

So let’s cut through the gloom and examine what went on as a frustrating Friday night lurched into an utterly shambolic Saturday morning.

This turned out a strategic calamity that was entirely avoidable. Or it would have been if only the SFA had been willing to pay the price for acting like professionals.

The daily rate for hiring the plane which flew Scotland out on Wednesday was £80,000.

The deal was with the Dutch version of Ryanair for an aircraft which might be fine for a short hop (so long as you don’t mind sipping a cuppa-soup off your knees) but which was simply not fit for the purpose of flying Scotland’s players across three time zones and 2500 miles for a qualifier of such importance.

You’ll be relieved to hear Regan and his president, Alan McCrae, had no such leg-room issues as they took their usual seats at the emergency exits, while the likes of Grant Hanley and Charlie Mulgrew played twister across row three.

But even worse than hiring this bucket of bolts in the first place was the decision to then allow it to head home after the team had disembarked.

It should have been parked there waiting for them to return.

That’s what the Irish did when they went to Tbilisi last September. It’s what Scotland and our top clubs did for years.

It’s what Aberdeen and Celtic did with their Euro ties in Kazakhstan. They paid for a plane with beds in it. And they kept it until they were done.

The SFA will no doubt see it as making a £160,000 saving.

But is flying Scotland’s top players around in reasonable comfort a cost? Surely it should be seen as an investment?

That’s the way the Irish saw it and they didn’t have the added concern of a home clash against the Germans a couple of days later.

But not Regan’s SFA. For them, this was a risk worth taking to save a few bob.

So when Amsterdam was hit by rain storms and the replacement plane got caught up in a backlog of delays, Scotland’s players were left to doss across Tbilisi Airport for the best part of four hours.

You can almost hear them whining already at Hampden. “How can we be blamed for the replacement plane going missing?” or “Is the weather Stewart’s fault too now?” Most revolting of all: “Is this because he’s English?” Trust me, that’s exactly the sort of whispering campaign that goes on if the competence of our great leader and his party is called into question. At times that sixth floor must feel like a North Korean enclave.

But the truth of the matter is Regan and his men continue to let our game down.

What befell Strachan and his players was just the latest example of their arrogance, complacency and ineptitude.

It was an embarrassment to see men in Scotland tracksuits strewn across a departure lounge floor, stretching out cramps and strains. At the very least Regan ought to have been big enough to apologise in person, to thank them for continuing to give up their time for the nation and to promise they’d never again be placed in such a ridiculously unprofessional position in Scotland’s name.

But, typically, Regan – who was heard jokingly describing his extra leg room as a “perk of the job” – was keeping his head down as Strachan’s players were shaking the lactic acid from their aching limbs.

Germany must be laughing up their tracksuit sleeves at this debacle as it would never have happened to them.

Tonight let’s hope they don’t make Strachan’s men pay the ultimate price.