Hampden Park during a football match between Honduras and Morocco in the 2012 Olympics.

Hampden Park in Glasgow is the primary home stadium for the Scotland national football team. This has been the case since 1906, soon after it opened. The present site of Hampden Park is the third location to bear that name and both the previous locations also hosted Scotland games. Scotland have also played many of their home games in other stadiums throughout their history, both in friendly matches and for competitive tournaments.

History

Early history

Scotland hosted the first official international match, a goalless draw against England on 30 November 1872, at the Hamilton Crescent cricket ground in Glasgow.[1] This venue was used for four Scotland matches between then and 1876. The next venue to be used was the first Hampden Park, home of Queen's Park. It hosted the first ever Scottish Cup Final in 1874 and a Scotland v England match in 1878.[2] Queen's Park left this site in 1883 because of a proposal to extend the Cathcart District Railway line through the site.[2]

Queen's Park then moved to a second Hampden Park, which hosted internationals between 1885 and 1890.[3] The first match hosted outside Glasgow was at Hibernian Park in Edinburgh on 10 March 1888.[4] This started a trend of smaller venues outside Glasgow being used for some of the less attractive fixtures, particularly against Wales. The more attractive match against rivals England was always played in Glasgow, which had the largest stadiums. During the 1890s and early 1900s most of the Scotland fixtures were played either at Celtic Park or Ibrox Park, as Rangers and Celtic competed to host the lucrative match against England.[5] The present site of Ibrox Park was opened in 1899 and it hosted a Scotland match for the first time in 1902, but a collapse in the wooden terracing resulted in the first Ibrox disaster, during which 25 fatalities and nearly 600 injuries were suffered.[5][6]

The loss of Scotland games to the other venues in Glasgow forced Queen's Park to consider increasing the capacity of the second Hampden.[3] In the late 1890s, Queen's Park requested more land for development, but this was refused by the landlords. The club acquired a new site, the present site of Hampden Park, from Henry Erskine Gordon in 1899. The third Hampden opened in October 1903, while the second Hampden was taken over by Third Lanark and renamed Cathkin Park.[2] The third Hampden hosted its first international in 1906. It expanded to the point where it set world record attendances between the 1900s and 1930s.[3][7] Even as late as 1970, Hampden set a record attendance for a UEFA competition match, the 1969–70 European Cup semi-final second leg between Celtic and Leeds United.[3]

Modern developments

Hampden continued to be the main home stadium for the Scotland national team until the early 1990s. It then required significant redevelopment to become an all-seater stadium, meeting the requirements of the Taylor Report. Ibrox Park and Pittodrie Stadium in Aberdeen had both been largely redeveloped before then and hosted some of the 1994 FIFA World Cup qualification matches.

Hampden re-opened in 1994 and was used for the UEFA Euro 1996 qualifying matches. It then had to be closed again as the main (south) stand was replaced and a variety of venues were used for 1998 FIFA World Cup qualification and UEFA Euro 2000 qualifying matches, including Ibrox, Pittodrie, Celtic Park, Rugby Park in Kilmarnock and Tynecastle in Edinburgh.[8] The fully redeveloped Hampden was re-opened in 1999 and hosted the later Euro 2000 qualifiers, including the first leg of the play-off against England.[8] Hampden has hosted the clear majority of Scotland matches since 1999 and almost all competitive games. Some friendlies have been moved to smaller venues outside Glasgow, usually either Pittodrie or Easter Road in Edinburgh. Hampden was closed for a year due to its use as an athletics stadium in the 2014 Commonwealth Games.[9][10]

The lease that the SFA held on Hampden was due to expire in 2020,[11] and this led to Celtic (Celtic Park), Rangers (Ibrox) and the Scottish Rugby Union (Murrayfield) making offers to become the regular home of the Scotland team.[11] In September 2018, the SFA instead announced an agreement to purchase Hampden from Queen's Park.[12] This deal was completed in August 2020.[13] A year later, Hampden also became the regular home venue for the Scotland women's national team.[14]

List of stadiums used for home games

Number of
matches		 Stadium Town/City First international Opponent Last international Opponent
275 Hampden Park[note 1] Glasgow 7 April 1906  England 19 November 2023  Norway
24 Celtic Park[note 2] Glasgow 25 March 1893  Ireland 18 November 2014  England
18 Ibrox Stadium[note 3] Glasgow /
Govan[note 4]		 15 March 1909  Ireland 11 October 2014  Georgia
15 Pittodrie Stadium Aberdeen 3 February 1900  Wales 9 November 2017  Netherlands
9 Tynecastle Park Edinburgh 26 March 1892  Wales 9 May 2003  New Zealand
7 Easter Road[note 5] Edinburgh 22 April 1998  Finland 22 March 2017  Canada
6 First Hampden Park[note 1] Crosshill[note 6] 2 March 1878  England 25 March 1882  Wales
6 Second Hampden Park[note 1] Crosshill[note 6] 14 March 1885  Ireland 5 April 1890  England
4 Hamilton Crescent Partick[note 7] 30 November 1872  England 25 March 1876  Wales
4 Rugby Park Kilmarnock 24 March 1894  Wales 27 May 1997  Wales
3 Dens Park Dundee 12 March 1904  Wales 2 December 1936  Wales
3 First Ibrox Park[note 3] Govan[note 4] 9 March 1889  Ireland 27 March 1897  Ireland
2 First Cathkin Park Crosshill[note 6] 15 March 1884  England 29 March 1884  Wales
1 Cappielow Greenock 15 March 1902  Wales 15 March 1902  Wales
1 Carolina Port Dundee 21 March 1896  Wales 21 March 1896  Wales
1 Fir Park Motherwell 19 March 1898  Wales 19 March 1898  Wales
1 Firhill Stadium Glasgow 25 February 1928  Ireland 25 February 1928  Ireland
1 First Celtic Park[note 2] Glasgow 28 March 1891  Ireland 28 March 1891  Ireland
1 Hibernian Park[note 5] Edinburgh 10 March 1888  Wales 10 March 1888  Wales
1 Love Street Paisley 17 March 1923  Wales 17 March 1923  Wales
1 Underwood Park Paisley 22 March 1890  Wales 22 March 1890  Wales

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 There have been three sites called 'Hampden Park'. The first is now the site of the Hampden Bowling Club. The second Hampden Park was renamed New Cathkin Park when Queen's Park FC moved to the current site of Hampden Park and Third Lanark AC moved in, bringing the 'Cathkin Park' name from their old home.
  2. 1 2 There have been two sites called 'Celtic Park'. Celtic FC first established a Celtic Park in 1888, but moved to a different site in 1892 when their rent was increased.
  3. 1 2 There have been two sites called 'Ibrox Park'. Rangers FC first established an Ibrox Park in 1889, but moved to a different site (adjacent to the previous) in 1899. The total for the current Ibrox Park does not include the match abandoned in 1902 due to the first Ibrox disaster, as it was later declared void and replayed at Villa Park.
  4. 1 2 The burgh of Govan became part of the city of Glasgow in 1912.
  5. 1 2 The match played against Wales on 10 March 1888 at the Hibernian FC ground was played at Hibernian Park. This is not the present site of Easter Road stadium, which opened in 1892.
  6. 1 2 3 The burgh of Crosshill became part of the city of Glasgow in 1891.
  7. ↑ The burgh of Partick became part of the city of Glasgow in 1912.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Forsyth, Roddy (30 November 2012). "Roddy Forsyth: the first ever football international was indeed the start of something big". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 15 September 2013.
  2. 1 2 3 "The Hampden Story". hampdenroar.org.uk. Scottish Football Museum. Archived from the original on 11 March 2012. Retrieved 15 September 2013.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Hampden". scottishfa.co.uk. Scottish Football Association. Archived from the original on 5 October 2012. Retrieved 15 September 2013.
  4. ↑ Plaque to the First Women Football Internationalists 1881, Mapping Memorials to Women in Scotland, 17 December 2019
  5. 1 2 Grahame, Ewing (30 December 2010). "More than 600 people were killed or injured in the first Ibrox Disaster in 1902 when Scotland played England". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 16 September 2013.
  6. ↑ Gillon, Doug (7 April 2008). "A national tragedy: Ibrox disaster, 1902". The Herald. Herald & Times Group. Retrieved 16 September 2013.
  7. ↑ How Hampden Park became the largest football ground in the world, Douglas Gorman, Scottish Sport History, 9 November 2020
  8. 1 2 Brown, Alan; Tossani, Gabriele (25 June 2015). "Scotland - International Matches 1996-2001". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 31 July 2015.
  9. ↑ Barnes, John (4 October 2012). "Hampden will be closed to football for Glasgow 2014 preparations". www.bbc.co.uk/sport. BBC Sport. Retrieved 15 September 2013.
  10. ↑ "Scotland v USA: November Hampden friendly confirmed". www.bbc.co.uk/sport. BBC Sport. 13 September 2013. Retrieved 15 September 2013.
  11. 1 2 Currie, David (25 January 2018). "Hampden: Rangers and Celtic make bid for Scotland games and cup finals". www.bbc.co.uk/sport. BBC Sport. Retrieved 26 January 2018.
  12. ↑ McLaughlin, Chris (11 September 2018). "Hampden v Murrayfield: Scottish FA opts to keep games in Glasgow". www.bbc.co.uk/sport. BBC Sport. Retrieved 11 September 2018.
  13. ↑ "Scottish FA takes ownership of Hampden Park". www.bbc.co.uk/sport. BBC Sport. 4 August 2020. Retrieved 4 August 2020.
  14. ↑ Goodlad, Phil (22 July 2021). "Hampden to be new Scotland Women home with 10% annual increase in pro players targeted". www.bbc.co.uk/sport. BBC Sport. Retrieved 22 July 2021.
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