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Queen's Park have claimed the SFA tried to buy Hampden off them for £1.

A meeting of more than 100 of the amateur club’s members heard that the paltry offer was made in the hope that it would be accepted as Queen’s would have had to pay back £18m funding to the National Lottery and debenture holders if the SFA had moved to Murrayfield.

The national stadium was eventually sold to the SFA for £5.1m last week after entrepeneurs Lord Willie Haughey and Sir Tom Farmer agreed to bridge a financial gap between what Queen’s Park were willing to accept and the governing body was prepared to offer.

But the club’s members were stunned to hear that the original offer for the 115-year-old stadium was £1.

The League 2 club’s committee stood firm with their desire to get a figure as close to the £25m valuation of the ground minus the liabilities - despite the continued threat of the home of football becoming entwined with the home of rugby.

A source at the meeting said: “The opening offer to buy Hampden for a £1 by the Scottish FA is an insult as far as I am concerned. One hundred and fifteen years of unique footballing history as well as the actual physical stadium for £1.

“To eventually get the price up to £5.1m appears to have been a great achievement by the committee and they deserve credit for that.

“They showed a lot of courage to stand up to the threat of Hampden no longer being the home of Scottish football and also for going against the advice that they were given by the advisors they brought in to help.”

“They told them to settle for £2million however the committee stood firm to get a higher price.

“The deadlines on accepting any deal were placed on Queen’s without any consultation and the feeling from the people in the room was that the SFA was holding a gun to the club’s head.”

While the Scottish FA declined to confirm that a £1 offer was made, citing confidentiality, it’s understood that it believes by taking on the stadium it will require to spend more than £10m over the next 20 years to just to maintain Hampden in its current state - and tens of millions more will be needed for it to be upgraded.

SFA chief executive Ian Maxwell said last week: “While we are now committed to Hampden Park we also recognise that it needs to change. We have heard the fans’ views throughout the process and agree with them that we need to improve access, transport links and the overall experience. We are committed to doing that.”

It’s understood, however, that a great deal of dissatisfaction at the manner in which negotiations between the SFA and the club were handled.

The Queen’s Park source added: “Whether that is the way to behave with a member club, Scotland’s oldest club, and indeed the club that formed the SFA, is a matter for the conscience of the people at the SFA.

“The committee were not happy at the deal but their belief was that high-end football would have moved to Murrayfield had they not agreed to sell Hampden.

“They were also kept in the dark over the role that Lord Willie Haughey and Sir Tom Hunter played in helping to finance the deal. They only knew about their involvement when it was announced in the Press.

“Bizarrely at the end of it all the SFA have offered Queen’s a loan at commercial rates to help redevelop Lesser Hampden and the feeling last night was to tell them to get lost.”

“We have to look at the move as a new future for the club with or without the help of the Scottish FA.”