Stop wasting money on National Stadium
FORMER SPL boss Roger Mitchell has accused the SFA of wasting money by staying at “dreadful” Hampden.
He insists the £5million used to buy to the National Stadium from Queen’s Park would be far better invested in grassroots football.
And Mitchell would prefer to see Scotland games taken BY PHIL GORDON around the country instead of the “embarrassment” of 17,000 crowds at Hampden.
Mitchell was in charge of the SPL in 1999 when
the company that ran Hampden had to plead for Scottish government investment to stop it from going into liquidation.
They had debts of £5.5m and former Sports Minister Sam Galbraith came up with a rescue package of £1.2m in March 2000, with half the cash coming from Glasgow city council.
But Mitchell said: “I begged Sam not to waste taxpayers’ money in this. Hampden was a dreadful ground then and it still is.
“It’s got plenty of history but it has no atmosphere and the views for most fans are poor. Tarting up the two ends behind the goals and putting in a couple of fanzones is not the answer.
“The cost would be too much. Hampden is fundamentally flawed and you cannot correct something fundamentally flawed. Nor can you continue to throw good money after bad.
“You have to use those resources for the good of the game, especially when we have other good stadia.”
Mitchell absolved new SFA chief Ian Maxwell of any blame and said: “This was all started by his predecessor (Stewart Regan) and not him.
“You cannot play games at Hampden with 17,000 people there, like the Albania match. It has to be moved elsewhere in a ground where that creates a full house, like Tynecastle, Easter Road or Pittodrie.
“That is what countries like Germany, Spain and Italy do. They try to create an enthusiasm for the national team by taking it into those communities.
“We already have Celtic Park and Ibrox as our two main stadia and the others would do a much better job with a full house than an empty one like Hampden.”