And even then their stay did not last long. By 1919 they were gone and the reason was an objection by England to continuation of the membership of Germany and Austria on the basis of their participation and defeat in The Great War with FIFA refusing to bend, not helped by Woolfall having died in harness in 1918. For England the short-term effect would be a huge loss of influence as the number of countries had risen from fifteen in 1914, to twenty in 1920 even after the withdrawal not just the FA in London but that of the three other Home Nations as well. For Scotland and its clubs it created a complete inability to do anything about the movement from 1921, breaking contact in the home country, of Scots players to America. And for all the Home- FAs, having not resulted in exclusion of a Great Britain team at the 1920 Olympic Games, albeit it was eliminated in the first round, it did both result in no participation in 1924 and with re-entry effectively that same year a complete climb-down in all but name.      

But even with membership once mre there was still not tranquillity. The Olympic Games were now to produce yet another point of contention - payment of expenses to Olympians, particularly for working days lost. The position or the majority of FIFA members, as shown in a 1927 vote, was for. The position of the English FA led by then and since 1923 by Charles Clegg, ever the supporter of amateurism was an ingenuous agin, given that his organisation had in that same vote abstained. Yet it mattered not. High horses were again mounted. The result was once more an England resignation in 1928, with the other Home Nations walking through the same lobby. It would mean no say and no place in the first World Cup, which in fact was in part created as a solution - the Olympics for amateurs players, the World Cup for professionals. However, there was a potential result for Scotland. With the backing of, ironically, Austria and Hungary, which had been suffering similar drains, triple-pressure had been applied to the USFA, its President, Andrew Brown, in any case Scots, Paisley-born, to stem the flow by forcing his members to recognise European contacts and act accordingly. The only problem would be that the majority of them would and did not comply causing the chaos of what have come to be known as the US Soccer Wars, which then flowed almost seamlessly into the 1929 Crash, the Depression and the collapse of US professional soccer more generally. The problem had been solved but not as intended.      

So before the outbreak of the Second World War there was for the SFA a decade of being outside as FIFA gradually extended its reach. But here there were finally perhaps some advantages. The political problems associated with both the 1934 and 1938 were avoided as it, the SFA under Robert Campbell, elected to the Presidency finally began to show some independence of thought and action. In 1929 on a Continental summer tour the first Scotland internationals against non-Home Nation teams took place. More would follow, three more in 1931. All the teams were FIFA members so channels were open. And in 1933 Scotland hosted a foreign national team for the first time. Irony on irony, it was Austria. 

However, having been President since 1927, perhaps the most constructive President of all time, in 1933 he stepped down. And that seems to have unleashed the Secretary, again from 1927 and before that Assistant Secretary from just after The Great War. He was, George later Sir George Graham, who would remain in post until 1959 aged sixty-seven and in retrospect be something of an unmitigated disaster. It is little exaggeration to say Scotland's recovery as an on-field footballing power would not until the 1960s with him retired. Whilst international games against FIFA members did resume in 1936 and the Home Nations would re-join FIFA in 1946 the SFA would otherwise post-war look more than foolish successively over the refusal to take its negotiated place at the 1950 World Cup in one of the places where football had been taken by Scots, Brazil, by arguments with Celtic in the next couple of seasons over the flying of the Irish flag, qualification for the 1954 competition in Switzerland but the sending of a squad of just thirteen, the failure to score and the conceding of eight, the resistance that same year to televising of games and  the non-appointment of a full-time Scotland manager until Matt Busby in 1958. Ian McCall, by far the most success long-term occupant ever, indeed the only one to have a win-ratio not just over 60% but 50%, would not be in position until 1960.