Stadium History

Queen’s Park FC, Scotland’s oldest club, moved in to the world’s first purpose-built stadium for club and international football, now the site of the Hampden Bowling Club. This is where the ‘Scotch Professors’ developed the modern passing game of football and exported it to the world.

The building of the Cathcart Circle Railway line forced a move to the second Hampden Park (now known as Cathkin Park).

Match attendances quickly outgrew the second Hampden, leading Queen's Park FC to build the third and current Hampden Park in Mount Florida.

Hampden hosted its first Scottish Cup Final in front of 64,472 fans, the largest crowd ever seen at a Scottish Cup Final up to that point.

Ground improvements increased the official capacity of the ground to 183,724.

• Scotland’s 3-1 victory over England attracted an attendance of 149,415 fans - a British record for any match.
• One week later, the Scottish Cup Final received a crowd of 147,365 fans, a European record for a club match, with an estimated 20,000 supporters locked outside.

Real Madrid won their fifth European Cup in a row against Eintracht Frankfurt, with a 7-3 victory, in front of 127,621 fans, the highest attendance ever in a European Cup final.

Hampden hosted the European Cup Winners' Cup final which ended in a 1-1 draw between Atletico Madrid and Fiorentina.

Liverpool suffered a 2-1 defeat at the hands of Borussia Dortmund after extra time in the European Cup Winners' Cup final.

Celtic’s European Cup semi-final second leg 2-1 victory against Leeds United was seen by 136,505 supporters, a semi-final record. This remains the record for the largest crowd to attend a European Cup or Champions League game in any round of the competition.

FC Bayern defeated Saint Etienne 1-0 in the European Cup Final.

Brothers Tommy and Jim McLean faced off against each other in the Scottish Cup Final, managing Motherwell and Dundee United respectively. In a thrilling final which some consider to be the best-ever, super-sub Steve Kirk netted the winner for Motherwell in extra time as the Steelmen won 4-3.

Hampden Park became a 51,866 capacity all-seater stadium, with UEFA awarding it the highest category four status for its upgraded facilities.

Hampden played host to former undisputed heavyweight champion of the world Mike Tyson as he defeated Lou Savarese in front of 30,000 fans at Hampden, after just 38 seconds.

Real Madrid returned to Hampden when Zinedine Zidane's volley, regarded as one of the best goals in history, clinched a 2-1 Champions League Final win over Bayer Leverkusen.

The latest European final at Hampden was the UEFA Cup Final clash with Sevilla defeating Espanyol 3-1 on penalties following a 2-2 draw after extra time.

Hampden hosted a venue record-breaking number of concerts in one summer with AC/DC, U2, Bruce Springsteen, Coldplay, Take That and The Eagles all performing.

Hampden hosts football matches as part of the London 2012 Olympic Games.

The Scotland women’s national football team attracted a record attendance of 18,555 fans for a 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup warm-up friendly with Jamaica.

The Scottish Football Association completes a deal with Queen's Park FC for the ownership of Hampden, with the transfer being completed in 2020.

Hampden hosted matches for the delayed UEFA Euro 2020, including Scotland matches against Czech Republic and Croatia and a Round of 16 match between Sweden and Ukraine. Scotland's men rounded off the year by defeating Euros semi-finalists Denmark 2-0 with goals from John Souttar and Ché Adams.

Scotland's women's team set a record attendance for a competitive match with 10,708 fans in attendance for a World Cup play-off match against Republic of Ireland. Concerts resume at Hampden following the pandemic with Ed Sheeran, Liam Gallagher, Calvin Harris, Gerry Cinnamon and Coldplay taking to the stage.