Disaster Index: 5.1 Entry: Vacancy Cause: Steve Clarke resigns as Scotland head coach following group-stage elimination, opening the managerial position at the precise moment the campaign's emotional charge has nowhere left to go. Category: Administrative Evidence: Clarke departs after twelve years of qualifying campaigns, one historic tournament return, and now a World Cup group exit. The role becomes available with the post-tournament audit not yet formally complete. SFA recruitment history suggests the interval between vacancy and appointment has previously carried its own disaster index. Historical precedent: Scotland has a documented pattern of managerial transition arriving in the cooling period between a tournament's end and any structural review of what produced it. The review and the recruitment tend to run in parallel rather than in sequence. Affected parties: SFA recruitment process; candidate pool; supporters who have not yet agreed on what went wrong; the next manager, who will inherit the conclusions Scotland has already reached. Immediate outlook: The post is open. The criteria for filling it have not been publicly stated. The country has opinions. Filed: 2026-06-27 / Post-World Cup group exit