Queen’s Park have finally been barred from entering one of the competitions the club helped initiate over one hundred years ago when the Scottish Amateur Football Association (SAFA) decided to definitely exclude them from this season’s Scottish Amateur Cup.
The SFL Third Division side, who have never turned professional and remain rooted to their motto of Ludere causa ludendi, "to play for the sake of playing", have been told that the short term agreement to allow them to enter last season will not be repeated as they do not play in an amateur league.
As a result the Glasgow side are no longer eligible to compete in the tournament they first won in 1912.
Ironically the decision comes as three of the players that graced the tournament in 2008 get set to play European football for SPL clubs. Dundee United’s Barry Douglas along with the Motherwell pair of Gary Smith and Steven Saunders were part of a young Hampden side defeated by Eddlewood 1-0 in the Final two years ago with the experience of playing against adult sides viewed as extremely beneficial to their progress.
The Spiders had dropped out of the competition in the 1960s after eleven successes, however as part of their commitment to developing youth players they re-entered it nine years ago fielding a side made up of from their under-19 squad and fringe first team players.
They were granted an exemption in 2001 from playing in an amateur league as a mark of respect to their history and status in the amateur game in Scotland, however that courtesy has now been rescinded.
The decision was made at the Annual General Meeting of SAFA last summer, however a stay of execution was allowed when the Hampden side became an associate member of a league in Glasgow whilst working on a compromise.
However they have been told there is no route available for them this year despite offering to change their approach to the tournament.
Former President at Queen’s Park Jim Hastie said, “It is a very disappointing decision as we remain an amateur club and not to be allowed to play in the top cup competition is not good for us as a club or the competition. We had offered to make changes to how we entered the competition to help matters however these changes were not accepted.”
Hastie would not confirm what the changes the club were prepared to make, however it is believed they would have stuck to a fixed squad of players for the entire competition regardless of injuries and also they would have forced players to miss games in the competition if they were serving a suspension as a result of games played in the SFL Youth or Reserve Leagues.
“We will keep talking as the Chief Executive at SAFA Gus McKay knows that we want to be involved, “ said Hastie before adding, “However at the moment it looks like we are out until we join an amateur league which we cannot do due to our commitments to the SFL and SFA Youth competitions.”
The timing of the initial decision to bar Queen’s Park was made within days of them winning the knock-out competition in May 2009 when they defeated Hurlford Thistle 3-1 and just after they provided the opposition to mark SAFA’s centenary in a match played at Hampden
This season their Hampden XI side lost midway through the competition to Dumbarton based St Patrick’s FP.
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