"At the moment, this is all still speculation and we have not been contacted by anyone at Birmingham," said chief executive Gordon Smith, who is currently in Durban with McLeish. "But if we are and Alex wants to speak with them, then that's the scenario we are going to have to deal with. But Birmingham City know how these things work."

Birmingham City recouped £3m compensation from Wigan Athletic for the services of Bruce and could expect to have to fork out at least a third of that to the SFA to buy out the remainder of McLeish's contract.

"If we have to address the matter then we will but we do not want that," said Smith. "We want to keep hold of Alex and although his current contract takes him beyond the 2010 World Cup, we have already had informal talks with the intention of extending that deal."