Former Scottish FA President George Peat said that the SFA "should have approached investors earlier in the process that led to the planned purchase of Hampden," according to the BBC. Businessmen Willie Haughey and Tom Hunter will fund half of the SFA's £5M ($6.6M) purchase of the national stadium from Queen's Park in '20 and SFA CEO Ian Maxwell spoke of the possibility of local and national government support for developing the "world renowned asset." The SFA chose to stay at Hampden instead of moving to Murrayfield. Peat: "One aspect of the deal that surprised me when I heard the chief executive speaking, he had said that had it not been for Willie Haughey and Tom Hunter they would've gone to Murrayfield. I would've thought that they would've been going looking for investors before they made the decision" (BBC, 9/17).
'I REFUSED': The BBC reported Peat said that a club chair urged him "not to help Rangers in any way" amid a fixture backlog in '08. The club was competing "on three fronts" near the end of the '07-08 season, having already won the League Cup. Rangers lost the UEFA Cup final to Zenit St. Petersburg and finished second to Celtic in the Scottish Premier League but won the Scottish Cup. Peat: "The prominent club asked me not to and I refused." Rangers played five games over 11 days at the end of that season (BBC, 9/17).
