SFA chief executive Ian Maxwell has been talking about Hampden Park’s involvement in UEFA Euro 2028, and why Celtic Park wasn’t included instead.
On Tuesday, Scotland was confirmed as a host country of Euro 2028, alongside England, Wales, Republic of Ireland and Nothern Ireland.
Every country other than England will have one stadium used during the 24-team competition, with England getting six, including two in London.
Hampden Park will be Glasgow, and Scotland’s, only arena. It’s still a pretty big thing with the potential for up to six elite-level matches played on our shores.
The news had many Celtic and Scottish football fans hoping that we’d see major improvements made to a dated national stadium. The end stands moving closer to the pitch, and the removal of a pointless running track would be high on everyone’s lists.
Yet the news from Maxwell is disappointing.
“There will be changes made to the stadium in terms of preparation for Euro 2028,” he told media, as reported by the Daily Record.
“We need to be realistic about what those are. There will be tweaks and upgrades rather than anything substantial because it’s important we use the income and interest that this game will generate to help the game across the country for future generations.
“Hampden is a stadium that will host these games and host them really well but we need to look at the infrastructure across Scottish football and how we can improve and advance that to ensure the game can be played by future generations.”
So we can completely write off any hopes of seeing genuine transformation at the Mount Florida ground. We might get a new pie stand if we’re lucky.
While Hampden being chosen as Scotland’s representative ahead of Celtic Park isn’t exactly a surprise, a few of you may be wondering exactly why that is the case.
Despite our ground being one of the biggest football stadiums in the UK, it seems very much like Scotland was only granted one venue in the bidding process. With that in mind, Hampden’s status was always going to see it chosen.
“Hampden Park is the national stadium,” Maxwell explained. “It’s world-famous for hosting matches.
“We’re in the house of UEFA today and the video club is showing Zinedine Zidane scoring in the Champions League final which is an iconic moment that everyone remembers and associates with Hampden.
“As the SFA, we want to see games played at the national stadium. That’s the only fitting place to hold such a prestigious event.”
Tournament matches would be far more atmospheric at Celtic Park for sure. Yet it must be said that our stadium does lack some of the facilities of the national stadium.
Celtic Park will remain solely for Celtic at this stage. Unless the United Rugby Championship gets in touch about their showpiece game again.
In other news, Celtic, Scottish football and the slow death of the away day
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