Brown must wait for ban decision

The Scotland manager, Craig Brown, will have to wait until the end of the month to discover if his one-match touchline ban still stands.

The Scotland manager, Craig Brown, will have to wait until the end of the month to discover if his one-match touchline ban still stands.

The disciplinary committee of football's world governing body, Fifa, will make a ruling on his sending off in Croatia 10 days ago. An automatic ban has already been imposed as a result of Brown's removal from the dug-out during the 1-1 World Cup qualifying draw in Zagreb.

Brown maintains he did nothing wrong and the Scottish Football Association's assistant director of administration, David Findlay, has sent a letter to Fifa's Zurich headquarters putting forward its case.

A Fifa spokesman confirmed it had arrived before Monday night's midnight deadline but added that the committee was still waiting for the match video to arrive from Croatia. As it stands Brown will have to watch the visit of Belgium in March from the stands.

Birmingham City's on-loan Celtic striker Mark Burchill has told the club that he is keen to make his move to St Andrew's permanent.

The Scotland international scored his first goal since his temporary transfer to England in the 2-1 win over Crystal Palace at the weekend, and Burchill has said that if the Birmingham manager, Trevor Francis, wants to keep him he is more than willing to stay at the club. "More than likely, I am here to stay if the manager wants me. That is the intention," said Burchill.

Aberdeen have unveiled Dave Cormack as the club's new chief executive, replacing Gordon Bennett, who resigned in August. The life-long Dons fan is currently president and chief executive officer with an American-based Internet recruiting corporation.

The Aberdeen striker Arild Stavrum made a scoring return for the Under-21 side at Dundee on Monday night as he stepped up his comeback from injury. The forward, who has been out of action with a back problem for six weeks, played during the second half of the 2-0 win over the Dens Park side.