The beer hunters: Will Scottish fans be allowed to drink at home games?

SFA Chief Executive Gordon Smith has refused to rule out the possibility of reintroducing the sale of alcohol at Scottish football grounds.

The consumption of alcohol within the grounds of a football match has been banned north of the border since 1980, but Smith has admitted it may be time to re-evaluate this situation, saying: "It would be up to the authorities whether they'd be comfortable with people drinking at matches. I can understand why some people want it."

Violent clashes at the 1980 Scottish Cup Final between Celtic and Rangers led to the ban and Smith can see why some are concerned that the resumption of alcohol consumption would lead to renewed crowd violence, a problem that British football as a whole has worked very hard to stamp out. "That was a benchmark," he said.

"It was a match that I actually played in and I saw the consequences of it. From that point of view we really need to look at whether there's been a big enough change that football fans could be relied upon to behave."