STURGEON’S DEMAND I want to join fans at Hampden for Euros

NICOLA Sturgeon has offered a huge boost to football fans by saying large crowds could be allowed back during the Euros at Hampden. She insisted it was “possible” fans may be allowed through the turnstiles by June 21 – a day before Scotland’s crunch match against Croatia at the National Stadium. Football matches have effectively been played behind closed doors for the last year as a way of containing Covid. Fans have been unable to watch their favourite teams and fears have been growing about an empty Hampden in the summer. But it emerged yesterday that the UK Government is “hopeful and optimistic” bumper crowds will return to stadiums in England this summer. Culture secretary Oliver Dowden reckons large attendances will be possible from June 21 – the date restrictions are set to be lifted south of the Border. Sturgeon and the

Scottish Government have so far adopted a more cautious stance but in her interview with the Daily Record, she offered hope for fans wanting to cheer on the national team.

Asked if the June date was also possible for Scotland, she said: “It is possible and I would love to see it happen. I have said before I would really like to be, personally and with some other people there, in Hampden, cheering on

Scotland in the Euros come the summer. So I certainly want to see that happen if at all possible.”

She added: “I am more optimistic about that now than I would have been just a couple of months ago.”

The First Minister said Scotland is at a “pretty critical stage” in its fight against the virus.

She said: “The next weeks are going to be crucial in making sure that that trajectory continues to the point where, yes, come the summer, we are living much, much more

HEROES Scotland will play at Euro 2021 freely than we are just now, with potentially crowds at football matches, other events and families being able to meet up together normally.”

She was more pessimistic about the prospect of Scots being able to enjoy a foreign holiday towards the end of the summer.

Travelling abroad is subject to heavy restrictions and she said: “I think international travel,

I am more optimistic about that now than I was two months ago

unfortunately, is probably the last thing we will see get back to normal.

“Would I rule out for the whole of this year? Absolutely not. But if we want to restore what you were asking me about a minute ago – the ability maybe to go and see a football match, or to go to a concert, to hug your family members – if we want to prioritise all of that, then perhaps the price we will have to pay for that for a bit longer is not having foreign holidays.”