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| Listen to Duncan Ferguson on the Tony Bellew is Angry podcast on BBC Sounds. |
Former Everton, Newcastle and Rangers striker Duncan Ferguson says refusing to play international football after a fall out with the Scottish FA (SFA) was the “biggest regret in my career”.
Ferguson, from Stirling, scored 124 goals in 423 club appearances and picked up seven international caps. However, he quit the national side from 1997 onwards, missing out on the 1998 World Cup in France.
The forward’s decision to make himself unavailable was in protest at the SFA’s decision to ban him for 12 matches following a headbutt on Raith Rovers defender Jock McStay – an incident which led to him serving 44 days in prison.
Speaking to Tony Bellew in the latest episode of the Evertonian boxer’s BBC Sounds podcast, the newly appointed Forest Green Rovers manager blamed his “pig-headedness” for his exile.
“When I came out of prison, the SFA asked me to serve another 12-game ban,” Ferguson said.
“I had to then go to the courts, to fight my case and say ‘look, this is like double jeopardy, or whatever it’s called’…
“I actually won my case… but the SFA wanted me to serve [that] ban, so I got the hump.
“It’s the biggest regret in my career, not playing for my country.”
Ferguson maintains the headbutt which led to his imprisonment was “a nothing incident”, telling Bellew both he and McStay played the remainder of the game at Ibrox, with the striker scoring later in the contest.
However, it was deemed to breach his probation conditions, which had been set after he was charged for assault three times previously.
Nevertheless, he admits he wishes he had not held a grudge against the SFA. “I got the hump. I regret [that] now because I should have played 200 times for Scotland,” Ferguson said.
“They asked me every year for 14 years. Every year up to when I was 34. Ally McCoist called me up late at night [saying] ‘come back big man, we’re playing Italy, you’ll play’.
“When Walter [Smith] was the manager, I was tempted, because I loved Walter. I was just pig-headed. I’d put the line in the sand and that was it.”
Ferguson’s career was dogged by injury, as well as controversy. He was sent off eight times in the Premier League, including six straight reds.
‘I could have controlled myself a bit better’
In 2004, he elbowed Charlton’s Hermann Hreidarsson in the face. The same year, he served a four-match ban for throttling Leicester’s Steffen Freund.
Two years later, Ferguson was banned for shoving Wigan’s Pascal Chimbonda in the face just before he was sent off for hitting Paul Scharner.
Off the field, alongside his charges for assault, he tackled two burglars at his home in Ormskirk in 2001, hospitalising one of the men.
However, Ferguson tells Bellew he believes his reputation as an angry individual is unwarranted.
“A lot of stupid red cards I got in my career really,” he says. “It takes you a night to gain a reputation and a lifetime to get rid of it. I had one or two problems off the field when I was 18. Maybe I could have controlled myself a little bit better.”
After retiring from playing in 2006, Ferguson returned to Everton to work within the club’s academy at Finch Farm, initially on a voluntary basis. He has since had two spells as caretaker manager of the men’s senior team.
In the podcast, Ferguson speaks with Bellew about his love for coaching.
“I loved it since I started doing it. I came through the Everton academy. I’ve done the hard yards,” he says. “I love being with the kids, I always did. I’ve got fun in me and I’m a positive guy – that’s the way I take my coaching.”
