Ian Maxwell, the Scottish FA chief executive, believes that a crowd of more than 40,000 at Hampden Park on Thursday night will raise a significant sum for the relief effort in Ukraine.
Some 33,000 tickets have already been sold for the friendly against Poland, which was arranged when Scotland’s World Cup play-off semi-final against war-torn Ukraine had to be postponed.
Amid continued uncertainty as to when or if that tie will go ahead — Maxwell said he felt like “a fraud” even discussing it — the Tartan Army and their Polish counterparts have done their bit to raise money for victims of the conflict. A £10 donation from every ticket purchased for Thursday’s game will go to UNICEF and its humanitarian response to the crisis.
“We have sold about 33,000 tickets which includes more than 4,500 Polish fans who bought tickets in 24 hours over the weekend,” said Maxwell. “Unusually, because of the short amount of time before the match, we are selling tickets directly to Polish fans. That would normally go through their association but we are dealing with that and they have flown out the door.
“It’s a good number and we would like to get into the 40s and obviously the more spectators that turn up, the more money we can raise for UNICEF and for everybody in Ukraine, so it’s important we try and do that. We are delighted with the figures so far.”
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That they are for a midweek game made it all the more impressive, added Maxwell. “It’s a school night, we have a lot of supporters who come from all over the country and Thursday night makes that more of a challenge. We were aware when we announced it that we might actually attract spectators that maybe wouldn’t necessarily come to a national team match but because of the fundraising element they would want to show their support. We just want to get as many in the stadium as we can.”
The friendly will be followed by another, away to Wales or Austria next Tuesday. The Scottish FA confirmed yesterday that two of Steve Clarke’s original squad — David Marshall and Scott McKenna — had pulled out with injuries. Craig Halkett, the Hearts defender, Ross Stewart, the Sunderland striker, and St Johnstone goalkeeper Zander Clark have been called up.
As the players gathered yesterday, there was no more news about the play-off semi-final. If the situation in Ukraine improves, the hope is that a date can be found in June, but Scotland already have four Nations League games scheduled for that month. Clarke has already expressed his concern that as many as six matches at the end of a long, hard season would be detrimental to the welfare of his players.
Maxwell said that the fixture problem was a “delicate” matter, one that it felt inappropriate to discuss when such a tragedy was unfolding. Speaking at an event for the autism charity, Team United, the chief executive said that there had been no direct talks with his Ukrainian counterpart.
“We have channelled that all through UEFA. The last thing the Ukrainians need is more complications in terms of communication. I was on one call he has been on, but it has been done through UEFA. It is actually really uncomfortable being on a call and talking about football given what is going on over there.
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“You feel like a bit of a fraud and it doesn’t feel right to be concentrating too much on the games because first and foremost you want the conflict to stop and you want everything that’s happening over there to stop and things to return to some sort of normality, whatever that looks like.”
