Association of Tartan Army Clubs Donate £400 to Support the Restoration of 1st Hampden

8:30pm, Wednesday 9th July 2025

ATAC - the Association of Tartan Clubs - is both delighted and proud to support Football’s Square Mile in its laudable aim of gaining UNESCO World Status for Football’s Square Mile, and its first objective to restore the site of the 1st Hampden Park.

Today, Hampden Bowling Club sits on the site of Scotland’s first national football stadium and has protected the site from redevelopment for over 120 years. The current mission is to restore the site, including the pavilion, and maintain a working sporting venue, which has the excellent benefit of allowing current and future generations of Tartan Army fans to sit in their original home. Donations are being welcomed to support the required funding of this feasibility phase, which is being put together by Hampden Bowling Club, The Football’s Square Mile Company, and Glasgow Building Preservation Trust. The donation was handed over by John Daly, who represented ATAC at the recent Scottish Cup Poetry Slam held in the Hampden Bowling Club Pavilion.

John Daly, ATAC, explained, “ATAC urges everyone with an interest in football to work together, publicly and privately, to achieve this worthwhile aim. Whilst every detail of this fantastic story has not yet been uncovered, whilst every T has not been crossed nor every I dotted, the bigger picture must surely be that the world hears this story. Our story. The Greatest Story Never Told. As a bang-average poet once wrote, “If it’s Coming Home - it’s Coming Hame, Scotland gave the world The Game."

Will Moffat, President of Hampden Bowling Club, adds, “We are once again blown away by the generosity and kindness of the Tartan Army. They have once again come up with a fantastic t-shirt and donated the proceeds to our bowling club’s restoration plan. Every day, I see more and more people visiting the Bowling Club site, and wherever possible, I let them in and show them around, which always blows them away. They see the importance of our site, and we must do everything possible to maintain this community asset, not just for the bowlers and locals, but for every Tartan Army fan from near and far. Finally, and most importantly, this site represents the foundation of the modern game; therefore, we welcome everyone who has an interest in the origins of the modern game to visit us. We are not sure whether we could fit all 4 billion people who watch or play football in one go, but we would definitely give it a go."

Our mission continues to promote Football’s Square Mile. If you would like to support the mission of restoring the 1st Hampden, please visit our Football’s Square Mile shop. Our Football’s Square Mile membership scheme gives you social membership to Hampden Bowling Club, and this is one of the many different ways we are raising money to keep the lights on in the bowling club, whilst in parallel, we raise money for the feasibility study.

The link is here for more details - https://www.footballssquaremile.com/fsmshop

John Daly presents the Donation Cheque to Will Moffat in the Hampden Bowling Club Pavilion