Brown: Hampden just not good enough

Former Scotland captain Scott Brown ranked H amp den 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 Football Association’s announcement that it had agreed a £5million 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, 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.”

Queen’s Park vowed to discuss the development with their members after the deal ensured they will need to prepare to move next door to Lesser Hampden.

The £5million fee will allow that ground to be redeveloped, while a move to Murrayfield would have cast major uncertainty over the future of Scotland’s oldest football club.

A statement read: “Queen’s Park welcomes the Scottish FA’s announcement, whilst acknowledging there are still many complexities to be worked out with various stakeholders.

“This will undoubtedly have huge implications for our club and our first priority is to engage with the club membership which due to confidentiality clauses we have been unable to do thus far.”

The Scottish Rugby Union thanked the SFA for the opportunity to be involved in the bid process.