FINAL FANTASY
Fans could be back for climax of Scottish Cup
NATIONAL clinical director Professor Jason Leitch has raised the possibility of fans being back inside grounds before the Euros — highlighting the Scottish Cup final as a potential ‘gateway event’.
It was confirmed yesterday that the Scottish Government had given approval for 12,000 spectators to be inside Hampden — 25 per cent of its capacity — for the four Euro 2020 matches being staged there in June.
Those details were submitted ahead of a UEFA deadline and are expected to see Glasgow confirmed as a continuing host city tomorrow.
That is also when UEFA will offer an update on its ticketing strategy as it remains unclear how many Scotland fans will actually be able to attend the Group D opener against the Czech Republic on June 14.
With tickets for the finals having been sold in advance, Hampden is set to be oversubscribed.
Leitch expects discussions on small test events of fans in domestic football after the planned relaxation of Covid restrictions on April 26.
He claimed the Scottish Cup final on May 22
could be used as a larger event to prepare Hampden, although that possibility is complicated by the stadium effectively coming under UEFA control in the build-up to the finals.
‘I wouldn’t be surprised if we started to think about test events again as we move into the levels system,’ he told radio station Clyde 1.
‘It’s April 26 presently to think about moving the country into level three and, then, three weeks later, all being well, we move again.
‘That’s when we start to think about capacities at festivals or in theatres or in football stadia.
‘We will again think what that looks like, perhaps for a few hundred people initially.
‘Then there are some... let’s call them gateway events.
‘Big events we know are coming, from the world mountain bike championship to the Scottish Cup final.
‘We need to think about how we make them as accessible as we possibly can, if Covid allows.’
There remains a provision for increasing the Hampden attendance figure put forward to UEFA if the Covid situation permits.
‘It’s thanks to everyone’s behaviour and the vaccine roll-out,’ said Leitch.
‘The reason we can say that the plan now for June is 25 per cent, 12,000 people, is because of the incidence, the positivities, the hospitalisations and the deaths in the country just now.
‘We may even be able to go further. Of course if we go backwards we might have to reverse.
‘But Scotland has now put down a plan that says we’ll have 12,000 people in Hampden and I’m absolutely delighted.’
While the SFA firmly believe they have met the requirements set down by UEFA to maintain Glasgow’s involvement, Dublin now appears likely to be cut from the list.
The FAI, on the advice of the Irish Government, was unable to put forward any minimum attendance assurances.
A Zoom meeting between representatives of the 12 host cities is due to take place today.
The agreement reached for Hampden was confirmed in a joint statement from the SFA and Glasgow Life.
‘We are delighted that the Scottish Government has given approval to allow spectators up to 25 per cent of the stadium capacity (approximately 12,000 — based on the UEFA Euro 2020 venue overlay and seating configuration) for each of the four games to be staged at Hampden Park,’ it read. ‘Naturally, this will be subject to continued progress with reducing the prevalence of the virus and the roll-out of the vaccination programme. ‘A decision on the Fan Zone in the city will be made at the end of April.’ Bar a handful of test events, club stadia in Scotland have been empty throughout this season.
Hibernian chairman Ron Gordon expects the situation to improve throughout next term, though, with full houses returning by the start of 2022.
‘We are being conservative, I think, in our assumptions that we are going to have full stadiums or the ability to have full stadiums sometime in the early part of next year,’ said Gordon.
‘Hopefully, it will be earlier than that. But our planning is, at the very latest, it will be at the beginning of 2022. So let’s see what happens.
‘Hopefully, the vaccination programme keeps moving at a good clip and restricts the spread of the virus and, if that happens, then maybe we could be looking at normality by September or October. But that is on the optimistic side.’