«Breaking News» SFA and Queen's Park close to historic £4m Hampden buyout after Lord Haughey offers one-off donation

The Scottish Football Association are close to agreeing a £4million deal to purchase Hampden from Queen's Park.

The governing body plan to choose between the national stadium and a move to Murrayfield this week.

And outright ownership of Scottish football's historic home is a pre-requisite of granting Hampden a reprieve.

Lord Willie Haughey has offered to put up the cash to keep Hampden as the national stadium

Facing financial ruin if the move to Murrayfield goes ahead, Queen's Park's original asking price was £6m.

With the SFA reluctant to pay more than £2m, however, businessman and philanthropist Lord Willie Haughey has stepped in to offer a one-off donation to bridge the financial gap so long as Hampden remains the home of Scottish football.

A memorandum of agreement has moved closer since the SFA asked for a further seven days to consider a decision chief executive Ian Maxwell believes will 'have a significant bearing' on Scottish football.

Sportsmail understands obstacles to a final deal still remain.

Queen's Park's ten-man committee plan to use the sale proceeds to redevelop Lesser Hampden as their new permanent home.

And they want written assurances that they can continue to play home games at the 52,000-seater arena if building work is not completed by the time the SFA take the keys.

Scotland internationals and showpiece cup games could have been moved to Murrayfield

The SFA board believe the responsibility for any unforeseen building delays would be the sole responsibility of Queen's Park.

And a Queen's Park request to play any future cup games against Celtic or Rangers at Hampden free of charge is also likely to be rejected.

Facing the repayment of £16m of loans and debentures if the SFA flee to Edinburgh, however, Queen's Park are considered unlikely to make either a deal-breaker.

Former Scotland striker and Rangers legend Ally McCoist has added his voice to the debate, insisting Hampden should remain the home of Scottish football.

'Hampden's got its problems,' said McCoist. 'I appreciate that.

'I go back to when they rebuilt Hampden and think that is where the problems were. We should have done it right then.

'We've obviously got the problem with the distance to the pitch.

'But the work that's needing done, there must be something we can do to get Hampden to be a proper national stadium. It's down to finance, I get that. But let's do something with Hampden.

'It is not perfect access-wise but neither is Murrayfield, if we are going to be brutally honest about it.

'Tradition has got to be something. Listen, it will be money because everything in life is these days.

'But if you take the emotion and tradition out of it, you take away what supporters are all about. It is all about the emotion, tradition and looking back for them.

'I remember watching my first game at Hampden, the 1973 Scottish Cup final, and tell my boys about being one of 118,000 there to watch Tam Forsyth scoring from 25 inches. My first Rangers-Celtic game and I remember it as if it were yesterday'.

Another former Rangers boss, Graeme Souness, believes no more public cash should be spent on a stadium at the expense of emergency services.

Urging the SFA to use Murrayfield, Ibrox and Parkhead, Souness told The Sunday Times: 'I was working in Scotland when they were talking about spending all the money on revamping Hampden and, at the time, I said: "Why are you doing that? You've got two fabulous stadiums in Glasgow and one in Edinburgh. Why not use all three and go and build a hospital instead?". I was much-criticised for it, but that's still my thinking.

'It's not the stadium that's important. It's the supporters and the support won't be less if it's at Murrayfield, Ibrox or Celtic Park rather than Hampden.

'Could you not introduce a rule that if Celtic or Rangers get to a cup final, it goes to the other stadium? If both get there, it could be at Murrayfield, or they could toss up or take it alternate times. There are ways round everything.'

Link article

https://hienalouca.com/2018/09/10/sfa-and-queens-park-close-to-historic-4m-hampden-buyout-after-lord-haughey-offers-one-off-donation/
Main photo article The Scottish Football Association are close to agreeing a £4million deal to purchase Hampden from Queen’s Park.
The governing body plan to choose between the national stadium and a move to Murrayfield this week.
And outright ownership of Scottish football’s historic home is a ...

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