Hampden chief defends pitch

The managing director of Hampden Park has described the state of the national stadium's under-fire playing surface as "regrettable''.

Celtic manager Ronny Deila criticised the pitch after his side's 2-0 win over Rangers in their Scottish League Cup semi-final clash on Sunday.

The surface was only laid in November after Hampden had been converted back into a football venue following its use in the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

Celtic and Dundee United will return to Hampden on March 15 for the League Cup final and later in the month Scotland play Northern Ireland in a friendly before the Euro 2016 qualifier against Gibraltar.

Peter Dallas, managing director of Hampden Park Ltd, insists work will be carried out to have the pitch ready for then.

He released a statement which read: "It is regrettable that the new Hampden Park surface did not meet expectations during the Scottish League Cup semi-final weekend.

"This was due in part to the excessive rainfall and freezing temperatures that have hindered the development of the pitch - an issue that has not been unique to the national stadium this winter - but also the timescale of restoration work undertaken since the Commonwealth Games.

"Preparing Hampden for the Commonwealth Games and returning the stadium for football has been a very detailed and in-depth operation.

"The new pitch was laid in November last year and we had worked closely with Glasgow 2014 to ensure the works started at the earliest opportunity.

"We will be working on a programme over the next six weeks to present the pitch in the best possible condition for the Scottish League Cup final and the Scotland national team's return to Hampden for the international challenge match against Northern Ireland and European qualifier against Gibraltar in March.''

Celtic boss Deila was unimpressed by the surface on Sunday.

"We are a passing team and you had no chance to pass the ball on that pitch,'' said the Norwegian.

"It was very hard to entertain our fans. If you are going to develop Scottish football you need pitches to play football on. It has to be much better.''

Rangers caretaker boss Kenny McDowall, as well as Dundee United manager Jackie McNamara and Derek McInnes of Aberdeen, whose teams played their semi-final on it on Saturday, were also critical.

Scottish Professional Football League chief executive Neil Doncaster described the pitch as highly unsatisfactory'' and has demanded an improvement ahead of the Scottish League Cup final.

Doncaster told Clyde Sport: "The SPFL pays a significant sum of money for the use of Hampden Park for these matches.

"We require that Hampden Park provides a quality pitch in excellent condition for our prestigious cup matches.

"The players of the teams involved in these special games deserve to enjoy the best possible football pitch conditions to allow fans in the ground and supporters watching on TV around the world to be entertained.

"This quality of pitch is what we were assured would be provided ahead of the semi-finals, however this clearly did not happen over the weekend.

"We have written to HPL to understand what they plan to do over the next six weeks to ensure that we get the quality of pitch in a condition we require for our Scottish League Cup final presented by QTS on Sunday March 15.''