Brown set on seeing out Euro campaign

Craig Brown, the Scotland manager, has vowed to stay in the national job - despite rumours of an approach from Olympiakos. A report linked the Greek club with a move to tempt Brown away from his post.

However Brown, who took over the Scotland job from Andy Roxburgh in 1993, wants to take his country to the finals of the European Championship in England next year.

David Findlay, a spokesman for the Scottish Football Association, said yesterday: "I have spoken to Craig Brown and he has confirmed he has no thoughts of leaving the national manager's job at this time.

"He has made it clear he will see the job through at least until the end of the European Championship campaign. That is the task he was given when he took the job. He is of a mind that the report linking him to a Greek club is speculation."

Brown's only previous club job was in Scotland's lower divisions with Clyde. He is due to take the Scotland team on a two-match visit to Japan later this month, to play against the hosts and Ecuador, before heading for the Faroe Islands in June for the last Group Eight qualifying match of the season.

Scotland are due to face Greece at Hampden on 16 August, in what is shaping up as the decisive match of their 10-game campaign.

The SFA yesterday confirmed there will be no reprieve for the Airdrie midfielder, John Davies, who is set to miss the Tennents Scottish Cup final because of suspension. Davies, sent off during Airdrie's goalless draw at Dunfermline on Saturday, will serve an automatic one-match ban and a two-match suspension from 13 May.

That will rule him out of the final on 27 May - unless his team-mates clinch second place in the First Division and enter a two-match promotion play-off which will go ahead before the final against Celtic at Hampden.

Television evidence had suggested that Davies was unfortunate to be shown the red card by Stuart Dougal, the referee, in an elbowing incident involving Jackie McNamara of Dunfermline.

However, the SFA confirmed yesterday that they will not use video replays to revoke refereeing decisions. "The Association does not permit the use of television evidence," said the chief executive of the SFA, Jim Farry. "It is a clear-cut policy decision.

"That has been the successive decision of the SFA committees and the SFA council for many years. It is a decision which is reviewed annually and it must be remembered the clubs are the SFA. We do not use television evidence for the prosecution in disciplinary matters, so we won't use it for the defence," Farry said.

The Celtic defender, Tony Mowbray, will also miss the cup final because of suspension. Mowbray was booked in Saturday's 2-1 win at Falkirk, and then again in Celtic's 3-1 defeat by Partick Thistle on Tuesday night.

That yellow card took him over the threshold of penalty points, and the 31-year-old defender must suffer a four-match suspension.

Mowbray, who has never collected a winners' medal in his career with Middlesbrough and Celtic, will begin next season having to miss three matches if he signs a new one-year contract at Parkhead.

The Airdrie defenders, Jimmy Sandison and Graham Hay, will be under pressure in their club's final two games against Hamilton and St Johnstone. Both are just one booking away from missing the cup final. Sandison, the Airdrie captain, missed the 1992 final against Rangers because of suspension.