Team Challenge
Picture the unlikely scene, 40,000 Spanish football fans mingle peacefully in the streets of Glasgow, their 'See-you-Jimmy' tartan hats, turning their black hair ginger and protecting their heads from the steady drizzle. They are about to descend on Hampden Park to watch their respective teams, Sevilla and Espanyol, battle it out in the 2007 UEFA Cup final.
And while the rain in Glasgow that night fell mainly not only on the plain but, well, everywhere really, it failed to dampen the Spaniards' spirits as they filled the air of Mount Florida with noise and passion, and yet another major sporting event hosted by Glasgow was decreed to be a roaring success.
It added another memorable chapter to the rich sporting lore of a city whose burgeoning reputation for holding such events grows and grows. And it's not just all about football – athletics, badminton, tennis, gymnastics and many more have been show-cased at Glasgow's various world-class arenas.
One sepia-tinted sporting event quite literally got the ball rolling (and doing all manner of other tricks!) forty-five years ago.
Most Glaswegians under the age of 40 will have a father, uncle or grandfather who was in the crowd of at least 135,000 at Hampden Park, on the heady night of May 18th 1960 when the great Real Madrid destroyed Eintracht Frankfurt 7-3 to lift the European Cup. To this day, the game is still referred to as one of footballs greatest ever.
A crowd, which still stands as the biggest ever for a European football final, paid just five shillings for the privilege of standing on the steep-sloped terracings of Hampden as the marauding Hungarian striker Ferenc Puskas and the cavalier Argentinian Alfredo di Stefano mesmerised the German opposition as they shared Madrids seven-goal tally between them.
Of the vast crowd in attendance, the majority were locals in an era when foreign travel was the preserve of the privileged. UEFA were so pleased with the Scottish Football Association's handling of the 1960 final that they also awarded Glasgow the 1962 and 1966 European Cup-Winners' Cup finals.
Fast forward forty-two years to May 2002 and the dashing Spaniards were back in the south side of the city to leave a fresh set of memories for a younger generation. With a majestic sweep of his left boot, Zinedine Zidane won the Champion's League for Real Madrid aganst another German side, Bayer Leverkusen.
The renovation of Hampden Park in the 1990s, had afforded it a five-star rating by UEFA with top-class facilities on and off the pitch, and the final of Europe's prestige football tournament was once again back in Glasgow.
Watched by an estimated 400 million people worldwide, Glasgow embraced the arrival of Spanish and German fans.
And another record was added to the long list of Hampden mythology when Zidane's winning goal for Madrid was recently voted the best Champion's League goal ever.
Again Hampden and the City of Glasgow drew enormous praise from UEFA after the 2002 final – the fact that Glasgow managed to win the right to host another major European football final just five years later, in the shape of the aforementioned 2007 UEFA Cup final, says a lot about what UEFA think of Glasgow and Hampden Park.
For UEFA's head of club competitions, Michelle Centenaro, the reason Glasgow had appeared on their rota again so soon was simple. "We wanted to stage the match in a place where there is a great community spirit, in a stadium where there is a pure football atmosphere and in a city where there is a palpable passion for the game," said Centenaro. "Hampden is a temple of football with enormous heritage and tradition."
While Glasgow is renowned throughout the world as one of football's capital cities, it has also played host over the years to an eclectic range of sports.
The Norwich Union indoor athletics meetings at the Kelvin Hall for some time have been the traditional curtain raiser for UK Athletics' indoor season. This was no different in 2007 with a host of excellent athletes, including former Olympic champions Allen Johnson, Kajsa Bergqvist, and Britain's top heptathlete Kelly Sotherton, enthralling a packed arena. More recently, the Scotstoun Stadium in Glasgow was the venue for international grand prix athletics.
Two years earlier Glasgow was the setting for the 7th Special Olympics National Summer Games which attracted an estimated 1500 athletes with learning disabilities. Sports included athletics, sailing, golf, equestrian, swimming and Judo.
In April 2006, Glasgow tennis fans were treated to a feast of action when the Davis Cup was held at Braehead Arena. Local hero and world number nine, Andy Murray's participation was limited through illness to a single appearance as Britain fell to Serbia & Montenegro.
And more recently, Glasgow played host to another prestigious event, the 10th Sudirman Cup World Mixed Badminton Championships, held at Scotstoun International Sports Arena. Glasgow is only the second city after Copenhagen to have staged the event twice.
There is no prize money in the Sudirman Cup; the teams play for their respective countries, and to earn Badminton World Federation ranking points. Only the elite countries in group 1, including China, Indonesia, Korea and Denmark, had a chance to lift the famous trophy with the teams in the other lower groups, which included Scotland, fighting it out for promotion.
The establishment of Glasgow as a premier location for hosting big-scale sporting events could reach its zenith in 2007, when the city will find out if its ambitious bid to host the 2014 Commonwealth Games comes good.
John Tierney, the chairperson of the Commonwealth Games Federation Evaluation Commission, praised Glasgow's bid for the 2014 event. Tierney said all aspects of the city's bid from infrastructure to political support had been "truly impressive".
The commission heard from key city figures including Strathclyde Police Chief Constable Willie Rae, and council chief executive George Black. A tour of the city saw members visit Hampden, Ibrox, Celtic Park, Scotstoun and the SECC.
The decision on whether Glasgow will be successful for the 2014 games bid, will be made in Colombo, Sri Lanka after a vote by the 71 Commonwealth countries.
At a colourful ceremony in central London, the regimental band of the Scots Guards, complete with pipes and drums, kicked off the bid with a rousing demonstration of Scottish culture. Glasgow's official bid document then arrived in a deluxe box weighing in at just under a stone!
The former European city of culture has submitted a formidable bid, and should the vote go its way, it will be using its three cathedrals of football, with athletics planned to be at an altered Hampden Park, Rugby Sevens at Ibrox and the opening ceremony at the 60,000-seater Celtic Park, the highest capacity stadium in Glasgow.
Other events will take place at the SECC, and a number of new facilities across the city. The new facilities being built include a new National Indoor Sports Arena, a velodrome, new hockey facilities and a mountain-biking course. A planned second swimming pool at Tollcross will only go ahead if Glasgow wins the vote.
A Games village, to house the thousands of athletes competing in the Games, will be built on the banks of the Clyde at Dalmarnock, within walking distance of Celtic Park for the opening ceremony, and will become housing afterwards.
As if all this wasn't exciting enough, a potential bid for Scotland to host the 2015 Rugby World Cup is currently being explored. If Scotland were to pull these two plum gigs out of the bag, then Glasgow would again be able to show off its fantastic reputation for holding bespoke sporting events.
But first things first – let's all cross our fingers and toes, and hope that we'll be popping the champagne corks to celebrate Glasgow winning the bid to host the 2014 Commonwealth Games!
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