Barry Ferguson's Scotland saga over

The saga of Birmingham midfielder Barry Ferguson's Scotland return has ended today.

National boss Craig Levein has revealed no further attempts will be made to persuade him out of international retirement.

Ferguson has not played for Scotland since the infamous 'Boozegate' episode last year but, having hinted at a possible comeback last week, the former Rangers captain has since informed Scotland boss Levein he does not want to make a comeback.

And Levein is now keen to draw a line under the matter once and for all.

He said: "The dialogue was ongoing, not between myself and Barry but between Barry and my assistant Mick Oliver over the summer.

"Eventually, it came to an end, simple as that. He publicly said he was interested and I made a phone call. I spoke to him. Mick spoke to him again. Then Barry decided he didn't want to do it.

"I like Barry, I've got a lot of time for him. I respect anyone who takes a decision like that, it isn't made lightly. Now I'm not really interested in talking about players who can''t play for me.

"The whole thing has been going on for a while. It was going to come to a point where it was 'yes or no' and this is it.

"As far as I'm concerned, the situation is that Barry has decided he doesn't want to play for us."