HANDS OFF HAMPDEN
CRAIG Brown, the former Scotland manager, this morning gives his backing to the Evening Times’ “Hands Off Hampden” campaign.
Recent weeks have seen the Scottish Rugby Union mount a charm offensive about moving major football matches to Murrayfield in Edinburgh when the current SFA arrangement with Queen’s Park for the famous old Glasgow ground expires in 2020.
Another alternative is taking these major matches around the country, but as far as the Aberdeen director of football is concerned – the manager of the national team between 1993 and 2001 – it just would be a crying shame to ditch this patch of Mount Florida turf which has been the home of the national team and much more besides for 114 years.
“As far as I am concerned, Hampden is the spiritual home of Scottish football,” Brown told SportTimes. “And as far as I am concerned, as a traditionalist, if Hampden was to disappear it would be a major disappointment.
“I always associate Edinburgh with the rugby and Glasgow with the football,” he added. “That is just because I am a West of Scotland guy. So if they were to make it Murrayfield for the football, I think that I would take a bit of convincing.”
Brown does admit to certain reservations about the current format and layout of Hampden, a redevelopment which was completed during his time as Scotland manager.
In that spell, at least, players said they preferred the crowd to be closer to the pitch, and the stands to be more steeplybanked, both of which are features of Scotland’s biggest club grounds Celtic Park and Ibrox.
The sprawling lay-out of the technical areas can also be an issue from time to time when a manager wants to get his point across to his players.
BUT his is a love affair with this ground which stretches back to his boyhood days, and when it comes to the history and tradition this place has to offer for international matches or on cup final day no other venue comes close.
He recalls watching the likes of Alfredo Di Stefano and Ferenc Puskas tearing Eintracht Frankfurt apart 7-3 at this venue in 1960, while who could forget Zinedine Zidane’s imperious volley which landed the Galacticos of Madrid a further Glasgow victory back in 2002.
While some of his Scotland side’s best memories actually came at Celtic Park or Ibrox – we beat Austria and Latvia in the East End of Glasgow, and scraped a memorable 1-0 win against Sweden in Govan en route to the 1998 finals – Leigh Griffiths’ remarkable free-kick double against England was just a reminder of how players of this current vintage can also write their name into the history books at Hampden.
“I used to go to the schoolboy enclosure at Hampden,” said Brown. “I would be stand- ing in there, and I couldn’t see anything! There were more than 100,000 people at games. The atmosphere was great in there, you were in there with all your pals, all your peer group.
“That Real Madrid-Eintracht Frankfurt game, I was a boy at that game,” he added. “I was playing for Dundee then and they took the whole team down to the game.
“They said it was part of our football education and it wasn’t half. Dundee had a very good team then, they won the league soon after, but I remember Bob Shankly the manager saying that he was taking the team there to continue our football education and it was a thrill just to see the way the two teams played, particularly Madrid.
“The TV coverage was of course so minimal back then. The Celtic versus Leeds United European Cup semi-final in 1970 was another huge match, it was a Scottish success so we were delighted at that.
“All that history is on the players’ shoulders when they play now – to play a national final anywhere else just doesn’t have the same ring to it. Even going to one of the Old Firm stadiums, Celtic Park and