Hampden Park is a white elephant blighted by abysmal infrastructure

ON Sunday past (April 15) I attended my umpteenth Hampden match in my 66 years of following Celtic (still) and Scotland (no more) at home and all over the place.

I gave up on Scotland because of the incompetence and maladministration of the Scottish football authorities, who continue to prove to a jaded world that they are beyond a joke.

Proposing to buy the atmospherefree white elephant that is

Hampden from Queen’s Park FC, after playing poker with a Murrayfield bluff card, was the latest of many last straws for me.

I know not a single fellow fan – and I know plenty – who has anything but contempt for the place. The shallow bowl design delivers atrocious sightlines in many parts of the ground, and the pitch is too distant. It is apparently OK however for the pawn sandwich-munchers accommodated in the posh bits of the main stand. These seem to be the only customers valued or considered by the SFA.

The transport to and from the ground also shames a city and a nation. Again, no consideration is given to ordinary fans and especially not to elderly ones like myself.

Buses are non-existent, trains are available from Mount Florida only, and run an unaugmented service that makes it impossible for the queuing thousands to board. Car parking is virtually impossible to find, and even if you do secure a spot anywhere near the ground it can take hours to get out of the jam after big games.

After Sunday’s semi-final, and having no choice, I was heading towards town on foot before the arthritis and sciatica kicked in. I was forced to beg a lift from a real gentleman who was driving home to Renfrew with his two boys but who went well out of his way to drop me at Charing Cross station. May he be blessed if he happens to read this.

I have been to many games in Germany, Holland and elsewhere in Europe where you exit from a fantastic stadium and board a waiting fleet of trams, or buses or trains. In some places all three services are available. These cities have the quaint and old-fashioned notion that they should actually serve citizens and visitors wishing to celebrate the world’s favourite game.

Such concepts of civic service do not occur to our political leaders and “service” managers. Oh, for the old football special...

Scotland does not need Hampden as Celtic Park, Ibrox and Murrayfield can all deliver the necessary; transport infrastructure remains an issue, however, at all of these grounds also.

If we must have a separate national venue then it is time that Scotland had a modern national stadium (and related infrastructure) for our national sport befitting a country where the Government aspires to real nationhood.

In reality it all too often lets its people down on so many levels. The history and present of Hampdump is the barely-living epitome of that failure.

Peter Broughan,

The Birches, School Road, Gartocharn, Alexandria.

WITH the final medal table for the Commonwealth Games showing that Wales performed best, per capita, from the home nations (followed by Scotland, Northern Ireland and England) I wonder if the time has come for these games now to be abandoned and consigned to history. Between 1911 and 2022, the games venues have been concentrated on the more affluent countries of the Commonwealth, with only Jamaica, Kuala Lumpur and India standing out against that trend, so it is not being held to bring sport to the masses. Even South Africa seems reluctant to host the event (having held the Fifa and Rugby World Cups). There seems to be no ongoing benefit to the Commonwealth as a whole.

Francis Deigman,

12 Broomlands Way, Erskine.