Why the Campaign?
For most of recent history, the Scottish Amateur Cup Final, the amateur game's showpiece occasion, has been played at Hampden Park, Scotland's National Stadium, on a May weekend - until this year that is.
It is our understanding that the Scottish Amateur Football Association were recenly informed by Hampden Park Ltd, the arms-length body charged by the SFA with running the ground, that they would no longer be guaranteed access to the stadium for the final. Instead, we believe Hampden Park offered a midweek slot or a provisional weekend booking, subject to the commitments of Queens Park (on the understanding that this would only be confirmed as late as 2 weeks before the scheduled fixture!) It seems it has already been indicated to the SAFA that the final is unlikely to be hosted at Hampden in future years.
As part of its recent re-development, over £20million of public money was spent on Hampden - what are we getting for our money?
This season, hundreds of teams from Shetland to Stranraer entered the Scottish Amateur Cup with games already as far as the Seventh round! Almost 35,000 players are registered as amateur in Scotland and in the words of the SFA themselves, 90% of the game of football in Scotland exists beyond the SPL and SFL. When you factor in the number of people associated with clubs in committee roles and as fans, it would not be unreasonable to estimate that almost 1% of Scotland's population are taking part in the game of amateur football in public parks across the whole of Scotland every weekend.
For some time, those involved in the amateur game have had to accept that they are the game's poor relations: facilities are shocking, there is little funding available and the SFA are not interested in changing this (as witnessed by the complete disregard of the senior amateur game in the much-heralded McLeish Report). Killing the Road to Hampden is the last straw.
We want...
To gather political, public and media support for the campaign in order to persaude the powers that be (the SFA and Hampden Park Ltd) to reverse their decision for this season's final and to commit to hosting, on a non-commerical basis, the amateur cup final weekend at Hampden for years to come.
If you agree and want to lend your support, start by signing the petition and checking out the "Petition & More" section of this site.
It is our understanding that the Scottish Amateur Football Association were recenly informed by Hampden Park Ltd, the arms-length body charged by the SFA with running the ground, that they would no longer be guaranteed access to the stadium for the final. Instead, we believe Hampden Park offered a midweek slot or a provisional weekend booking, subject to the commitments of Queens Park (on the understanding that this would only be confirmed as late as 2 weeks before the scheduled fixture!) It seems it has already been indicated to the SAFA that the final is unlikely to be hosted at Hampden in future years.
As part of its recent re-development, over £20million of public money was spent on Hampden - what are we getting for our money?
This season, hundreds of teams from Shetland to Stranraer entered the Scottish Amateur Cup with games already as far as the Seventh round! Almost 35,000 players are registered as amateur in Scotland and in the words of the SFA themselves, 90% of the game of football in Scotland exists beyond the SPL and SFL. When you factor in the number of people associated with clubs in committee roles and as fans, it would not be unreasonable to estimate that almost 1% of Scotland's population are taking part in the game of amateur football in public parks across the whole of Scotland every weekend.
For some time, those involved in the amateur game have had to accept that they are the game's poor relations: facilities are shocking, there is little funding available and the SFA are not interested in changing this (as witnessed by the complete disregard of the senior amateur game in the much-heralded McLeish Report). Killing the Road to Hampden is the last straw.
We want...
To gather political, public and media support for the campaign in order to persaude the powers that be (the SFA and Hampden Park Ltd) to reverse their decision for this season's final and to commit to hosting, on a non-commerical basis, the amateur cup final weekend at Hampden for years to come.
If you agree and want to lend your support, start by signing the petition and checking out the "Petition & More" section of this site.
Save The Road to Hampden is an independent campaign made up of concerned amateur football fans. It is not officially endorsed by or in any way linked to the Scottish Amateur Football Association.
