Celtic Should Raise Hell If The Hampden Pitch Is A Shocking State For Our Semi-Final.

Football pitches all over Europe, and which are played on every week, labour under all kinds of weather and all kinds of conditions.

A lot of them, you would think the turf had just been laid.

They are picture perfect.

Here in Scotland we have a convoluted set-up where the SPFL runs the leagues and the SFA observes them.

With not much to do except look at the white elephant of Hampden you would think it would be pristine.

But Hampden’s pitch has been in a shocking, unpardonable state the last few times we’ve seen it and played on it and the news that our semi-final will be on the Sunday rather than the Saturday might suit TV companies and police and such like, but it does not suit us because there is a high likelihood that the pitch will be cutting up.

If it is then Celtic should raise nine kinds of hell.

Imagine the indignity for Scotland if the national stadium pitch looks like a ploughed field when the two leading sides in the country are playing a semi-final on it.

Can you imagine how that will look to a foreign TV audience?

Two sides slugging it out on pitch you could wouldn’t walk a dog on? And who benefits from it in a playing sense? Not the team who prides itself on possession based football on the deck.

We should be all over this. The SFA has no excuses here. Queens Park don’t even play on that pitch anymore; all they really have to do over there is water it and take care of it. There are people running bowling greens and public parks who manage it to a greater degree than the governing body of Scottish football seems able to.

Worse, there are people running modest clubs with modest funds who keep their pitches nearly perfect. That our “leaders” are unable to do the same is damning. Celtic should do more than damn them.

If that pitch isn’t in good nick for us heads ought to roll.