Football fans welcome at Murrayfield

Scottish Rugby has been delighted today to open the doors of BT Murrayfield to football fans.

We have hosted over 100 fans who have taken the official tour and seen our great facilities and heard about our rich history.

A number of leading football writers, along with former Rangers and Scotland captain Barry Ferguson, also took the tour and then faced a Scottish Rugby Select XI on the pitch. This was followed by a full training session for Spartans FC of Edinburgh who were also invited on to the BT Murrayfield pitch as our guests today.

Since taking up the Scottish FA’S invitation to bid, we have highlighted what we believe are the many benefits, to both Scottish football and Scottish rugby, of bringing leading matches to BT Murrayfield.

Scotland’s largest stadium has been a 67,144 sell- out for the last eight Scotland rugby internationals. We’ve had football at BT Murrayfield before. Frank Rijkaard brought his Barcelona team in 2007 and 57,000 fans came to Murrayfield to watch them beat Hearts in a friendly.

Supporter polls have also overwhelmingly indicated a preference for BT Murrayfield to become Scotland’s joint home for both football and rugby.

Transport links to the stadium are excellent, with trams taking supporters right to the front gates – more than 14,000 Rangers fans travelled to BT Murrayfield for their recent league game against Hearts. l Dominic Mckay is Scottish Rugby’s chief operating officer