Football without fans is not nearly as exciting. Everyone wants to see fans back in stadiums when it is safe to do so. And recently, it had looked like that could have been a possibility if the Scottish Cup final was held at Celtic Park.
Firstly, it was only a remote possibility that some fans could end up attending the Scottish Cup final. With the Hoops already out of the competition, there were some calls for the final to be moved with Parkhead being touted as a potential venue.
There is scope now to allow test events and have small numbers of around 500 supporters at matches. However, that’s not possible for the Cup final on May 22nd as Hampden Park will be in the hands of UEFA at that point of time ahead of EURO 2020. Thus, there was a possibility that the event could be moved.
But ultimately, it does not look like that is going to be the case at the end of the day, as the SFA have decided against making the switch.
Scottish Cup final won’t be played at Celtic Park
Daily Record report that SFA have decided against moving the Scottish Cup final to an alternative venue like Celtic Park, BT Murrayfield or Ibrox, even though Cup finals and semi-finals have been played away from Hampden Park in the past when necessary. The report states that a source has confirmed:
"“The Cup Final will go ahead at Hampden with no fans allowed. It’s a frustrating scenario for football in this country but it’s simply not feasible to move it elsewhere for a wide range of reasons.”"
In England we did see around 8,000 fans at the recent Carabao Cup final between Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur. Reasons for the Scottish Cup final not being moved appear to be work being done in other stadiums, the cost involved with the switch as well as the fact that many players would want to have their Hampden Park moment even if it is behind closed doors.
Thus, it is clear that there won’t be any fans at Celtic Park this season. But let’s just hope that that won’t be the case for much longer.