Broony slates Hampden after decision to stay

FORMER Scotland captain Scott Brown ranked Hampden among the worst grounds for atmosphere in the wake of the decision to retain it as the home of Scottish football.

Brown was scathing of the Scottish FA’s announcement that it had agreed a £5 million deal to buy the stadium from Queen’s Park instead of moving to BT Murrayfield.

The use of Celtic Park and Ibrox had previously been ruled out following a bid process.

The Celtic captain (below), who retired from international football earlier this year, told STV: “Hampden is possibly one of the worst stadiums I have played in for atmosphere.

“For footballing-wise and Scotland as well, I think we should be playing at Celtic Park, Ibrox and the smaller games, when you only get 17 or 18,000, should be at Hibs and Hearts, and the bigger games could be at Murrayfield as well.

“We’ve got some great stadiums here and we choose to use the wrong stadium for a football match.”

SFA chief executive Ian Maxwell promised to find ways to improve the fan experience by redeveloping Hampden.

But Brown said: “It’s not going to happen, you need to start that stadium all over again.

“It was built for a running track and you are not going to get the fans and the noise on top of you that scare the opposing players. It’s easy for them to turn up, big open pitch, hardly any fans can be heard.

“You play at Celtic Park, Ibrox, Tynecastle, you have got the atmosphere there and that’s what makes the opponents a little bit scared to come and play there.”