Where’s our Wembley? Foulkes Calls for changes
After semi- final showcase ended in criticism for Hampden, former Hearts chairman wants total overhaul
YOU won’t find punters agreeing on much as the dust settles on a dramatic League Cup semi- final weekend in Scotland. There is, however, one topic where we might just creep close to unanimity: Hampden. Or, more specifically, the pitch. “Ludicrous”, said Rangers’ John Lundstram; “a major disappointment” for Aberdeen manager Jim Goodwin; so too for Celtic boss Ange Postecoglou; “really bad,” according to Michael Beale.
The torrential, relentless Glasgow rain certainly did not help, but there was clear frustration all round that the surface did not hold up particularly well. As Postecoglou pointed out, this was a showpiece occasion for Scottish football and viewers around the world will have laid eyes on a pitch buckling into a state not befitting of the big stage.
Social media is not always the most reliable gauge of wider public opinion, but it is difficult to find anyone coming out in defence of the national stadium at the minute. And fierce criticism of the pitch has also opened the door to wider scrutiny.
The debate over whether
Hampden is really the best we can do is not a new one, but weekend events have brought considerable issues back to the fore. Accessibility is one, facilities another. All, according to former Hearts chairman and Labour peer George Foulkes, are not good enough.
“I’ve been at Hampden a few times supporting Scotland and Hearts, and I think it’s a terrible stadium,” Foulkes said. “I’ve been to some European stadia supporting Hearts, so I can compare them.
“I think there are three major issues with Hampden. One is access – where it is, how to get there. It’s almost impossible to get there by public transport and that creates huge problems with congestion and difficulties for supporters.
“The second is the appalling toilet facilities. I was there at the start of the Covid pandemic, when we were being told to wash our hands, and it was quite impossible there. Some of the facilities are absolutely appalling.
“And the catering is also useless, it’s way back into the 20th century. These days, football supporters should be given decent facilities when going to matches. You just don’t get that at Hampden. Those are the three major problems -- it’s in the wrong place, out of date and supporters are treated like cattle.
“The pitch was terrible, absolutely dreadful. It was like a farmer’s field and I don’t understand why it was so bad. At Tynecastle, we’ve spent a lot of money getting a modern, hybrid pitch and it’s been terrific, I think that’s the case in most major European leagues.
“No one in any authority seemed to pick it up and say something should be done about it. My old friend Rod Petrie at the SFA, who I have a lot of respect for, and the Scottish Government ought to get together and see what can be done about Hampden.”
Accessibility is up for debate. Fans are directly advised not to drive to Hampden on match days, parking nearby is severely limited and mostly reserved for local residents. Getting back to the M74 motorway after matches, while close by, can take a painfully long time with the roads – which are littered with potholes – largely gridlocked.
The stadium is also serviced by two train stations – Mount Florida and King’s Park – five minutes’ walk from the ground. Queues to get in, as you would expect, are lengthy after matches and often stretch a considerable distance away from the stations themselves. There are also several bus routes which pass by the stadium via Glasgow city centre. Events on such a scale will always be accompanied by some level of disruption and inconvenience, but the experience inside the stadium is perhaps of greater concern.
Views of the pitch can vary wildly depending on where you are seated, and in many areas there is a distinct feeling of being too far away from the action. In the pitch level seating behind each goal, it can be difficult to follow exactly what’s taking place on the field of play.
Foulkes, who in 2021 authored a report on football governance which was presented to the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, believes a complete reset is needed. “It needs to be somewhere else,” he said. “I think they made a mistake at the time when they ‘ upgraded’ it. They didn’t really improve it much at all.
“I think it should be somewhere which is accessible by public transport from all parts of Scotland.
It should have modern facilities with proper catering on site, run by the stadium operators. And it needs proper toilet facilities.”
Foulkes is of the view that the Scottish FA and Scottish Government should work together to find a better solution, and that games could be moved to other stadia around the country while a new national stadium is built.
“I did a report on football for the Council of Europe about the involvement of governments in sport,” Foulkes said. “I agree with ( former UK Government Minister for Sport) Tracey Crouch that the government must be more involved in sports in a number of ways, and funding is one of them. I think a combination of government funding and from the football industry would be important and needed.
“To be honest, the grounds of the major clubs are a lot better and could be used temporarily while Hampden is replaced. At Hearts, we’ve improved Tynecastle over the last few years and the facilities are a lot better than at Hampden. Our stadia, generally, are not as good as on the continent, particularly in Germany where I’ve seen one or two. But the national stadium should be a showpiece. Look what they’ve done in England; Wembley was relatively good even before they redeveloped it, and now it’s a spectacular stadium. We should have something equally as modern and up to date as Wembley.”
There are, of course, significant questions which would require answering. Funding would be the greatest barrier – how much would dispensing with Hampden and building an entirely new arena really cost? For comparison, the new
Wembley was built at a cost of over £ 1billion in today’s money.
Is it realistic to expect such massive investment, even if it doesn’t stretch quite that far into the financial stratosphere? There is, too, the case for improving what we have. Fans’ most frequent gripe is the views and proximity to the pitch, something that could feasibly be rectified via renovation, albeit still at significant cost.
Hampden forms part of the UK and Ireland’s bid to host Euro 2028, and a Glasgow City Council meeting in November last year heard that as much as £ 14m could be set aside for improvements, including the addition of a fan zone and football village.
The successful bid will be confirmed in September, with Turkey the only competitor. A major tournament coming to Glasgow would put any talk of a new national stadium on the backburner for at least the next several years, but would almost certainly bring the issue of improvements to the very fore.
That might not be the solution some are hoping for, but any move to make ‘ a day out at Hampden’ that bit better for fans is surely a welcome one.