The Hampden pitch has been making the headlines for the wrong reasons since the weekend, but the sub-standard condition of the playing surface at the national stadium is just one of the things that could prove detrimental to the sales pitch Scottish football presents to the world.
That is the view of Ange Postecoglou, who criticised the Hampden pitch after his side beat Kilmarnock on Saturday evening in the Viaplay Cup semi-final. For the Celtic manager, the two semi-finals played over the weekend were showpiece events for the Scottish game, and as such, should have presented the best side of it to the watching public.
He was pleased to see a joint commitment from the SFA and the SPFL then that has followed to ensure remedial work will be carried out before he takes his team back to Hampden at the end of February for the final against Rangers, but in a wider sense, he says that the Scottish game has to do better in showcasing the things that make it so popular within its own borders to a broader audience.
“I think that’s self-explanatory,” Postecoglou said. “Everyone wants the final to be a showcase event and that includes the way you present the stadium.
“I have sympathy for the fact that the weather conditions on the weekend weren’t great, but at the same time, it could have been presented in a better manner.
“I think everyone has acknowledged that. We all want it to be better, and hopefully it will be.
“I don’t want to be seen as sort of picking on things that we can do better, because we all have our own responsibilities, you know? I have a responsibility to this football club to make it the best it can possibly be, and to be a good manager.
“But I think that people understand that if we are going to improve as a league and improve in our status in world football – which moves forward pretty quickly – then these are the things we need to do.
“We have to invest in them, because they are just as important as us trying to improve the playing standards. The infrastructure around it has to improve. I think you have seen that around the world, most countries now understand that it’s a really important part of the overall picture and how you sell your game.
“Mate, in Australia I was known for complaining about pitches. I would do it on a consistent basis, because there we had to share pitches with different codes and stuff, and it used to do my head in because I thought it detracted from the growth of the game in Australia.
“It was a much bigger issue there than I think it is here. Most clubs I think are trying and are working hard on it.
“I’ve already said it, but credit to Motherwell when you see what they have done, they have invested in their pitch and they will get the rewards from that in the way that the game is presented at their ground.
“So, certainly for our showcase events, we want to try to put the best picture out there for people.”
The energy-sapping nature of the surface at Hampden at the weekend means that Postecoglou will definitely be shuffling his pack for the visits of St Mirren and Morton to Celtic Park this week, on Premiership and Scottish Cup duty respectively.
Postecoglou has no complaints though about his team still having three domestic fronts to fight on, saying that is exactly what he has built his squad for. In fact, he wishes they still had European competition to factor in at this point of the season too.
He doesn’t subscribe then to the theory that the League Cup – shorn now of a European qualification place – has lost its lustre and could even be dispensed with.
“I don’t think so,” he said. “Both cups have their place in Scottish football, and you’ve got to remember, it’s not just about us or Rangers.
“There have been other clubs in the past who have won the League Cup and that’s been a fantastic achievement for them and something for them to aim for.
“Again, it has been my experience in the past in other countries that you kind of don’t want to shrink the game at any level, you always want to keep the game growing and give opportunities as much as possible, whether that’s to the players or the clubs.
“I don’t have an issue with both cups, I think they are part of the calendar. We would all have loved to have European football in the back half of this year, and that’s why we have built a squad to cater for it.
“We’re not in it, our goal next year is to make sure we are, but I think if you look at Celtic in recent years, they have consistently played between 50 and 60 games.
“The players adapt to it, it’s up to me to make sure we have a strong enough squad to be able to challenge on all fronts.”
It is good timing then for a number of players to be returning to the fold following injury, with Sead Haksabanovic among them.
“He’s good,” Postecoglou said. “He’s trained all week.
“Sead, Anthony Ralston, Stephen Welsh and James McCarthy are now all training fully and are available, which is good I think, as I’m keen to get them all back involved.”
