The Rangers legend Ally McCoist has called on the Scottish Football Association to display some common sense and use either Ibrox or Celtic Park as the venue for the Scottish Cup final on May 22 if that will permit spectators to attend the showpiece event.
The SFA has already announced that the match will take place at Hampden, even though the fact that the ground will have been taken over by Uefa in preparation for the Euro 2020 matches in June means that no supporters will be present. With holders Celtic drawn against Rangers in the fourth round of the competition this weekend then at least one of the Glasgow giants will not reach the final this season, which would mean that either Parkhead (capacity: 60,411) or Ibrox (50,817) or possibly both would be available to host the final.
It has already been announced that up to 17,000 fans will be allowed inside the national stadium for Scotland’s Euro 2020 ties against Croatia and the Czech Republic and McCoist would love to see a similar amount attend this year’s Scottish Cup final.
“Of course, it absolutely makes sense,” he said. “It doesn’t matter where the final is played — if you get an opportunity to get supporters into the stadium, then surely that can only be a good thing.
“I’ve been lucky enough to go to a good few games up the road and down the road — Liverpool, Spurs, all over the place — but the games when I have really missed the punters have been the Old Firm ones and the likes of maybe Rangers v Aberdeen. These are the games when you actually think, ‘This place, with an atmosphere, would be completely different.’ So anything that can be done to get supporters back in the stadium should be done.
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“Obviously, safety is of paramount importance, I get that, and that’s the first thing to look at. But if you can do it safely, then come on. We need to get fans back into games.
“The fans clearly want to go to games and, if you’re a player, you want to play in front of crowds. The Old Firm games this season have been eerie, there’s something not right about it. You have to say that it’s great we’ve had football at all and a lot of people deserve praise for that, but it’s clearly not the same without fans and I genuinely think the players miss the fans as much as the fans miss going to games.”
It was suggested that contractual agreements may be in place which state the final must be hosted by Hampden, which became the SFA’s property following the £5 million sale by Queen’s Park last year.
“I get that it might be a reason — it could even be an excuse,” said McCoist. “But, in these times, there’s a case for everyone ripping everything up. We’ve been making it up as we go along [during the pandemic]. Rightly or wrongly, that’s what we’ve been doing because we’ve never been in this situation. There has to be a little bit of leeway in this situation.”
