‘Good number’ of fans could attend Hampden

Scotland fans have been given Euro 2020 encouragement after Nicola Sturgeon declared optimism that there would be a “reasonably good number” of supporters at Hampden.

Uefa has asked for the 12 host cities – including Glasgow, Dublin and London – for their proposals on how many fans they expect to be able to accommodate by today.

While the UK Government has announced plans for a number of test events – including a 21,000 crowd for the FA Cup final on May 15 – with a view to having Wembley full for at least some European Championship games, the Scottish Government has been more circumspect.

There is no date set for fans to return in Scotland but provisional proposals will be handed to Uefa this week.

Ms Sturgeon would not go into details but she gave fans hope they could be in Hampden for games against the Czech Republic on June 14 and Croatia eight days later.

The first minister said at her daily briefing: “We have to put our proposals into Uefa, they have to then assess those and it will be for them to set out the proposals in due course.

“We are well aware of the deadline and while these are not final decisions for us, I am optimistic we will have matches played here in Scotland with a number of spectators, a reasonably good number of spectators in Hampden for them.

“But obviously these are discussions and deliberations and decisions that have to be made by the appropriate authorities.”

Meanwhile, Scotland have arranged two warm-up games ahead of their opener against the Czechs.

Steve Clarke’s side will face Holland in the Estadio Algarve, near Faro, Portugal, on June 2 and Luxembourg away on June 6.