Troubled Hampden pitch to receive extra maintenance
- Published
The pitch proved heavy going for the Aberdeen and Rangers players in the 120 minutes of their semi-final on Sunday
The Hampden playing surface is being assessed with a view to "enhanced pitch maintenance provision", the Scottish FA and Scottish Professional Football League have said in a joint statement.
The national stadium hosted Viaplay Cup semi-finals on consecutive days at the weekend, the first in foul conditions.
Michael Beale, whose Rangers team beat Aberdeen at Hampden on Sunday, said it was "a difficult pitch".
The SFA and the SPFL met on Monday to plan how it could be improved.
Celtic beat Kilmarnock 2-0 on Saturday in a wet and windy early evening match. Winning manager Ange Postecoglou said he was "disappointed in the pitch" when he walked on it before kick-off.
"If you are going to have showcase events, where everyone is watching and the spotlight is there, you want to present it in the best possible condition," he said.
"It doesn't have great grass cover, it didn't really hold really well."
Rangers midfielder Malik Tillman said after the 120 minutes of play on Sunday that the surface was "not that great", and Aberdeen manager Jim Goodwin expressed his disappointment in it too.
"I was surprised," he said. "I know there was torrential rain on Saturday, but a national stadium pitch should have a bit more resilience than that."
With Celtic and Rangers meeting at Hampden on Sunday 26 February in the cup final and with international matches to be staged there, the football authorities say discussions have taken place to find ways to "mitigate the ongoing inclement weather to optimise the playing surface".
The statement continued: "The inclement weather conditions, allied to the fixture schedule being dictated by a winter World Cup, contributed to the underfoot conditions during two otherwise exciting and entertaining semi-final ties.
"Whilst significant work was completed in late October, enhanced pitch maintenance provision is being investigated as a priority, to ensure the best possible surface is available for the remainder of the season, notwithstanding the sustained forecast for more rain and challenging weather conditions."
Beale commented on the pitch in his post-match media conference. "I know we can't control the weather," he said. "Do we separate the two weekends to play one this weekend and one next weekend?
"That's for other people to decide but that was a difficult pitch and that could take its toll because we have a game on Wednesday night and so do the team we played and so do the two teams who played on Saturday."
Queen's Park no longer play their home games at Hampden but did return for two matches last month because Ochilview, where they have been playing while Lesser Hampden is being redeveloped, was being used by Stenhousemuir.