Hampden Park could be handed extra Euro 2020 ties after it emerged Glasgow is still on UEFA’s new look list of host cities.
Record Sport has learned SFA chief executive Ian Maxwell has held discussions with European football chiefs in which he confirmed the national stadium will still be available as a venue for next summer’s finals.
Originally, 12 stadia around the continent had been selected to stage matches with three group games and a last-16 match to be played at the home of Scottish football this summer.
With the competition rescheduled for 2021 as an emergency response to the coronavirus pandemic, UEFA have revealed three host cities may be unable to proceed as planned.
That means at least nine previously allocated games may have to be shared around the remaining nine venues with Hampden in line to pick up some of the slack.
We understand the British government has also been involved in giving UEFA necessary assurances that both Hampden and Wembley, which will host the semi finals and final, will be available to stage matches.
A source said: “The talks with UEFA have involved a number of different bodies all the way from Downing Street to Glasgow City Council.
“UEFA are very demanding in what they expect each host city to provide but we have met all the criteria and are all signed up to the required commitments and ready to go.
“There are other cities and host venues which are struggling to do the same.
“That obviously means we could pick up more games which would be a real shot in the arm for football fans in this country after such a difficult few months.”
The 12 selected host cities are Amsterdam, Baku, Bilbao, Bucharest, Budapest, Copenhagen, Dublin, Glasgow, London, Munich, Rome and St Petersburg but UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin has confirmed that a number of them may fall by the wayside as Europe attempts to deal with the consequences of the Covid-19 crisis.
Ceferin said: “The idea is that we stay in the same cities. We have had conversations with nine cities and everything is set.
“With three cities, we have some issues.
“So we will discuss further, and in principle, we will do it in 12 cities. But if not, we are ready to do it in 10, nine or eight.”
Our source added: “Obviously we are all hostages to fortune where this pandemic is concerned. It’s impossible to predict where we will be in 12 months’ time, especially if there is a second wave of the outbreak that could change everything.
“Also, there’s no way of knowing if, where or when certain areas of Europe may become hotspots
for the virus or what measures would have to be taken in that event.
“But, as things stand, Hampden has been confirmed as one of the last nine venues standing which is a little bit of good news at a difficult time."
