Celtic Should Be Pushing The SFA To Cease Their Petty “Hampden Only” Policy.

Today the news that Hampden and Murrayfield look like being the only grounds in Scotland selected to host matches in the 2028 Euros comes as no surprise whatsoever.

It seems to be part of a long-standing and petty policy by the governing body.

However the decision was arrived at, it’s one on a continuum that goes back a long, long time, to the SFA’s decision to spend a fortune – including a lot of public money – on Hampden.

The SFA holds the strings when it comes to this stuff.

The decision to snub Parkhead is very deliberate. They have no problem with Murrayfield because Murrayfield doesn’t really pose a threat to the sanctity of Hampden … but Celtic Park does.

For decades some have wondered why the biggest and best stadium in the country, never got near hosting a European final.

There are one or two minor criteria we don’t meet – related to press facilities I believe – but we could comfortably accommodate the necessary changes if we wanted to.

We don’t because there is no point.

Because the SFA will only allow the use of the national stadium for a purpose such as that. So any changes to get us up to the necessary standard would be a waste of our time and money.

The governing body has a Hampden Only policy, a throwback to when they had to find a way of paying for that white elephant.

They couldn’t have it said that a mere club stadium overshadowed it, which is probably one of the reasons why Celtic Park is not on the Euros list. Nobody who visited Parkhead for a game could possibly think Hampden offered more.

It is high time this idiotic policy was ditched and more respect given to the two other Glasgow stadiums which leave Hampden in the dust. And I write that as one of the few people, it seems to me, who actually enjoys the national stadium when I’m there. As a neutral venue it’s great. For one off games it’s one of my favourite places.

But Celtic Park is, of course, a vastly superior football arena, and is well capable of hosting a European final and the atmosphere would be light years from anything Hampden could generate with that ridiculous running track around it.

The SFA maintains a parochial, small minded view of this which frankly can’t be defended any longer and, to be honest, never really could. Who doubts that we could host one of those showpiece games if the opportunity was presented to us?

The problem is that under the SFA it never will be.

If we ever want to be considered, then this is one of the areas where we have to lobby the governing body. The difficulty is in that we’d likely have minimal support. The other clubs don’t care enough about this issue to make a song and dance about it.

Their rationale is that they don’t benefit either way, so why should they care?

But of course, they should care.

Because this is an example of how the SFA’s clubhouse attitudes and lack of modern thinking holds the whole game here back. That will not change until the fundamental self-serving nature of that organisation does.

And that’s in the club’s own hands … if they ever wake up and realise that.