Scotland favour 'traditional route' to Euro 2028

Scotland's Euro 2020 loss to Croatia took place at Hampden but with a restricted crowd of under 10,000

Scotland want to reach Euro 2028 by the "traditional route", insists the Scottish FA's chief executive.

Uefa will set out qualification guidelines at a later date.

"We qualify through the traditional process, that's got to be the aim," Ian Maxwell told BBC Scotland.

"We're very close to qualifying for [Euro 2024 in] Germany, the guys have got a bit of work to do yet, but we're hopeful we'll get there.

"[For 2028] The team want to qualify by the traditional route and we'll see what happens outside of that. The process is a matter for Uefa."

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Cardiff's Principality Stadium is due to stage the opening match of the 2028 tournament with the final at Wembley in London.

Glasgow's Hampden Park is the only Scottish venue from 10 chosen grounds.

The national stadium hosted two of Scotland's games at the multi-city Euro 2020 finals, which was delayed a year and impacted by crowd restrictions because of Covid.

"We'll try and get as many games as possible," said Maxwell, with the schedule yet to be announced.

"There's consistency across the bid, with us, Wales, Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland getting one stadium. We have a really good track record of hosting high-profile, successful matches at Hampden and we want to continue that."

Organisers estimate the event will be worth £2.6b to the UK economy.

"Finance is important," added Maxwell. "From a national association point of view, the real benefit is the engagement and interest it will drive across the game and what we can achieve in terms of participation.

"But it's not about getting hung up on numbers today, it's about looking forward to the excitement of seeing the best players in Europe coming to Scotland."

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