Stadium rises to European occasion as 'temple of football' lives up to its billing

AS 40,000 Spanish football supporters filled the damp Mount Florida air with a sound and passion more naturally suited to the sultry stadia of La Liga last night, they added yet another memorable chapter to the rich lore of one of world football's most famous venues.

Its appearance may have changed beyond recognition since it first hosted a major European final almost half a century earlier, but Hampden Park provided no less fitting a stage than it had on that famous May evening in 1960 when Real Madrid and Eintracht Frankfurt served up arguably the greatest match of all time to a salivating Scottish public.

Of the 127,261 in attendance for Real's seminal 7-3 defeat of their German opponents in the European Cup final, paying just five shillings for a terracing ticket, the majority were locals in an era when foreign travel was the preserve of the privileged.

As Hampden savoured its sixth continental showpiece last night, the neutrals were in the minority but no less enthralled by a spectacle for which they had shelled out up to 85 a ticket. That's inflation for you, football style. The global explosion of the game, which has turned UEFA from a collective of voluntary administrators to a massive corporate organisation, is reflected in admission prices as much as anywhere else.

When Bayern Munich defeated St Etienne in the 1976 European Cup final at Hampden, for example, a centre stand ticket cost 8. Even five years ago, when Zinedine Zidane lit up the Glasgow night with his extraordinary strike for Real Madrid in the Champions League Final against Bayer Leverkusen, you could get your hands on an east stand ticket for as little as 30.

UEFA is now in the process of rebranding the UEFA Cup, however, in an attempt to ensure it can co-exist successfully with its elite tournament which was described earlier this week by its own president, Michel Platini, as "an ogre".

This is the first season in which a central marketing policy has been introduced, from the quarter-final stage onwards, and one of the main reasons a venue with such iconic status was chosen by UEFA for the final.

UEFA officials, headed by Platini and new general secretary David Taylor, wore beaming smiles in the VIP box as Hampden lived up to their expectations. Michele Centenaro, UEFA's head of club competitions, explained why Scotland's five-star national stadium had appeared on their rota again so soon.

"We really wanted to stage the match in a place where there is great community spirit, in a stadium where there is a pure football atmosphere and in a city where there is palpable passion for the game," said Centenaro. "Are you surprised we chose Glasgow and Hampden Park? Hampden is a temple of football with enormous heritage and tradition.

"We felt it was very appropriate for the UEFA Cup and its new image, especially as the 2002 Champions League final here was so memorable. But don't ask me when we'll next be back in Glasgow, we are just starting the bidding process for 2010 now."

Last night's match delivered enough memories to sustain us until Hampden gets the nod again. The atmosphere was at fever pitch long before Billy McNeill, the official Glasgow ambassador for the tournament, defied his creaking knees to carry the UEFA Cup out to the centre circle with all the imperial swagger he had shown in lifting the European Cup in Lisbon 40 years before.

Sevilla's supporters, housed in the traditional Rangers end of the stadium, unfurled a huge banner proclaiming 'Tanta Gloria, Tanta Futbol'. The message was 'so much glory, so much football' as their exciting team chase success on three fronts.

At the Celtic end, the blue-and-white bedecked hordes of Espanyol followers appeared curiously out of place but they matched their rivals from Andalucia when it came to raising the decibel levels. As a Nike ad played on the giant video screens installed for the night, the sight of Ronaldinho strutting his stuff provoked a cacophony of jeers as the Espanyol fans reminded Glasgow they consider themselves as the only club in Barcelona.

There was representation, too, from those who had purchased their tickets in unfulfilled anticipation of their club being at Hampden. A Spurs flag hung from the top deck of the south west stand, and beside it, there was an even more optimistic banner from the Gyle Hearts supporters club. Perhaps it was a tribute to celebrity Jambo Alex Salmond, enjoying the occasion from the seat next to Platini on his first official duty as Scotland's First Minister.

Like the rest of us normally sustained on an SPL diet, he won't see too many matches with the pace, fluency and technical excellence of this one.

It was breathless, compelling stuff, Adriano and Albert Riera swapping high quality goals in a first half which did not require even a second of stoppage time. Parity was the least Espanyol merited at the interval and the underdogs continued to carry the greater menace until Moises Hurtado's dismissal midway through the second period.

As the dramatic climax unfolded, no-one could say a frenzied Hampden had not fulfilled every expectation UEFA had of it. The City of Manchester Stadium will stage next year's UEFA Cup final. It has a tough act to follow.