Bid kicks off to secure Unesco status for historic football ‘home’
SCOTS around the world are being urged to come together on St Andrew’s Day to support a bid to ensure the true home of football is recognised.
This year Football’s Square Mile, the World’s Biggest Open-air Football Museum, was launched following the discovery of the foundations of the world’s first enclosed purpose-built international football ground – the 1st Hampden Park.
Now the organisation behind the move, The Hampden Collection, is taking things one step further and has today launched a bid for Unesco World Heritage Site status for the historic footballing site.
As reported in The Herald, the 1st Hampden was “lost” for more than
100 years until extensive research in 2017 revealed the only known map of its location in the National Records of Scotland.
Earlier this year, Archaeology Scotland found the foundation stones of the original Hampden pavilion, beer bottles, clay pipes and teacups from the period, and wire fencing, which encompassed the original pitch.
Graeme Brown, of The Hampden Collection, said: “1st Hampden is the ‘centre spot’ of what we have termed ‘Football’s Square Mile’, which is the world’s most important football heritage site.
“This Square Mile encompasses the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Hampden, birthplaces of the Glasgow Football Club Titans: Queen’s Park, 3rd Lanark, Rangers and Celtic. Furthermore, this includes Cathcart Cemetery, which is the ‘Scotch Professor’ Burial Ground, and the final resting place of Hugh Mccoll, RS Mccoll, George Pattullo, Willie Maley and William Wilton, naming but a few.
“These were the grand architects of the ‘Scotch Game’, which transcended international boundaries, and taught the world how to play football.”
Football’s Square Mile is the home of the Scotch Professors, as they colloquially became known, who created the passing, running and inclusive game of football.
Queen’s Park, widely considered to be the grand architects of modern football, built the world’s first purpose- built, enclosed international football ground at 1st Hampden, created many of the rules and inventions used today, and created the template for how fans watch the game, including the fabled season ticket.
Mr Brown added: “Our mission is to take back Scotland’s footballing heritage from those who have either rewritten it, or done little with it. Football is the ‘Peoples’ Beautiful Game’, crafted and created in Scotland for the world to enjoy and now watched by 3.5 billion people.”
The launch of the campaign coincides with the 149th anniversary of the world’s first international football match, held at West of Scotland Cricket Ground in Partick, Glasgow, on St Andrew’s Day, 1872. Queen’s Park FC fielded the entire Scottish team against England, gifted the national team its strip, organised the event and gave the world international football.
Leeann Dempster, chief executive of Queen’s Park FC, said: “The history of Queen’s Park is synonymous with Scottish football and we are delighted the heritage of the three Hampden Parks is being recognised, which forms a large part of the square mile footprint.”
Mr Brown believes they have they right credentials for Unesco status.
He added: “There are 10 selection criteria for Unesco World Heritage Status, including ‘to represent a masterpiece of human creative genius’ and ‘to bear a unique or at least exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition or to a civilisation which is living or which has disappeared’. We can argue Football’s Square Mile has five of the 10 criteria set out by Unesco, and we only need one. There are 12 months to garner grass-root support for this project and turn it into a viable reality.”
Our mission is to take back Scotland’s footballing heritage