[stevenk101]

Hi Everyone,

You may have noticed on the official SAFA site, read on the forums or heard through the grapevine that this season's Saturday Scottish Amateur Cup Final is not to be played at Hampden, you may even have heard some of the reasoning behind the decision, but I hope you agree that this is a terrible situation for the most prestigious trophy in Scottish Amateur Football.

To try to address this concern, I've put together a website and petition under the campaign banner of "Save the Road to Hampden" which I hope you'll all support - it can be accessed at http://www.roadtohampden.org.uk. On the site you'll find a variety of suggestions as to how you can help and I'd encourage you to pursue these and pass them on to everyone connected with your club (there's also a version of the petition which you can download and get folks to complete offline).

It's not just about actually running out at Hampden on the day, it's the possibility of doing it that makes this so important. There are nearly 35,000 registered amateur footballers in Scotland and, for most, playing at Hampden has to be a major dream.

Please lend your support and circulate this information as widely as possible. Let's ensure that even if we can't get the decision changed for this season, we can at least get guarantees for the future.

Regards,

Steven Kidd
Club Secretary
Cambusnethan Talbot, CSAFL (...and out of this season's cup!)

[Eye Valley]

The final being played at Almondvale (or whatever you call it now) is a bit of a comedown for our national cup comp.

[jamesd]

Scottish football an absolute joke, the people who sit round that table have lost all sense of reality. Stewart Regan and whoever decided ....right guys lets talk about who can and cant play at Hampden. Right the amateurs lets drop that one. Motion passed.

They can stick it up there ****. The people own Hampden, the amatuers are those who go along to games and pay to watch so called professionals entertain them at semis / cup finals and internationals at hampden. To refuse them to play on it one saturday is showing you were football is going in this country down the pans. Who the hell voted these ****'s on to these boards i tell you this, not the common man or average supporter. These people havent grown up with the game at local level or grass roots . They are so far away from whats going on with our game.

Tell you what i ask in protest that All Amateur Clubs do not enter the tournament for next season. Do not pay the £15- £20 to enter it. I ask all clubs to stand together on this. Most clubs enter this competition knowing they will never get to the final but its the principle that has stood the test of time and why clubs enter it.

As someone says amateur clubs have played once a season there (cup final) since 1909. Folk like Stewart Regan and the other numpties who came to this decision should be run out of our country.

They wonder why they are not liked, they do nothing for the game , they do nothing for common sense. The wages they are on comes from us the supporters attending games.

Its time a new Sheriff came into town and it aint Regan.

Full credit to the guy starting a petition its people like him who should have a seat on this board , and someone from all levels to make it fair. Finally I think people should approach senior clubs and ask for their support.

Good luck

This post has been edited by jamesd: 16 March 2011 - 21:06

[stevenk101]

Many thanks to everyone who's signed the petition and/or joined the Facebook cause, but ahead of this weekend's games I'd be really grateful if you could download copies of the petition from the www.roadtohampden.org.uk website and get them filled out by players, officials and spectators. We're starting to get a wee bit of joy with media and politicians, but the more support we can show the better.

Drop an email to info@roadtohampden.org.uk to find out where to send completed petitions...

Thanks again.