Is there a future for Hampden Park? It has been great but will it turn to dust? Sportsmail assesses the bigger picture

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In a little over a fortnight, Scotland will return to Hampden Park for a critical World Cup qualifier against Slovenia.

Before the game, talk will revolve around the future of Gordon Strachan. Yet, on the sixth floor of the National Stadium, the team manager is far from the only issue focusing minds.

In three years' time, the SFA's existing 20-year lease on Hampden lapses — and an internal debate is already underway.

Hampden Park has played host to some massive events but is it still fit for purpose?

The likes of Spain, Brazil, Italy, Germany, Switzerland and the United States all manage fine without a dedicated national football stadium.

And people now ask openly if Scotland should do the same.

The Commonwealth Games of 2014 revealed Hampden to be an excellent athletics stadium. By common consent, it's a poor venue for international football.

When the SFA ask Tartan Army supporters clubs for feedback on the Scotland match-day experience, as a matter of routine the results consistently throw up the same complaint.

It has reached iconic status within Scottish sport and is recognised as a national stadium

Forget Grant Hanley. The National Stadium is no longer fit for purpose.

The South Stand, rebuilt at a cost of £59million to house administrative offices of the SFA and SPFL 20 years ago, looks shabby. Public transport links are inadequate. Parking is woeful.

Pubs are a crowded no-go zone before and after major games. There is no Frankie & Benny's, nor Pizza Hut, to sustain supporters on site. A chip shop on Aikenhead Road and a Greggs across from the used car showroom on Cathcart Road do their best to cope with the eight or nine major games a year. But the facilities fall short of what the modern supporter has come to expect.

Last November, the pace of development on England's Wembley Way took Scots by surprise. The old thoroughfare has changed beyond recognition. Landlocked and short of cash, Scotland's National Stadium was revamped in the late 1990s but has barely moved beyond offering steak pies as an alternative to mince.

Hampden was the stadium that played host to Zinedine Zidane's exceptional goal in 2002

The pitch is too far from supporters, the atmosphere escapes into the south side skies like the plume from a scrapyard fire. The roof encasing the stands does nothing to keep the rain off the front dozen rows or so.

'It's a stadium that offers a better atmosphere for athletics than it does for football,' says Gordon Smith, chief executive of the SFA between 2007 and 2010.

'The gap between the crowd and the pitch is too wide. Fans are too far away if they are behind the goals.

'Without doubt, Celtic Park, Ibrox or Tynecastle offer a better atmosphere.'

To stage major games, occupy sixth floor office space and maintain museum and medical facilities, the Scottish Football Association pays Queen's Park. Some in positions of influence at the SFA fear the cost of renting and maintaining Hampden will only increase.

Real Madrid beat Bayer Leverkusen to win the Champions League at Hampden in 2002

Leaving the game's spiritual home would create an emotional, political and financial fall-out.

When amateurism created a huge cash shortfall in the stadium's redevelopment 20 odd years ago, the old Scottish Executive, SportScotland and Millennium Commission plugged the gaps.

A debenture scheme offering fans to pay between £450 and £3,500 for assigned seats for life also helped, generating £4.5million.

Should the SFA leave, however, the debentures are no longer worth the paper they are written on.

Queen's Park would have to pay the cash back loaned from their debentures subsidiary firm TNS. An amateur club playing in League One of the SPFL, their only feasible way of doing so might be to do the unthinkable. Sell the land and call in the bulldozers.

The SFA would be long gone by then; sharing internationals and cup finals around Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen.

Wembley is far more advanced than Hampden and Scotland must get with the times

The neutrality of Celtic-Rangers cup games would be an issue. For some, that's the most compelling left to have a National Stadium at all.

'I am in favour of a neutral National Stadium,' adds Smith, a former player and director of football at Rangers.

'Let's face it, there will be Rangers and Celtic finals or semi-finals on a regular basis.

'If there is no Hampden, you have to have a toss of a coin to see which is the home team. Or take it in turns with alternate stadiums.'

Others cite more romantic reasons for retaining Hampden.

In the days when Scottish football punched above its weight, Puskas, Di Stefano, Maradona and Zidane all graced the turf. There can't be Scots football supporter over 30 who doesn't have a gilded memory of some kind. For all its failings, the old place can still tug at the emotional heartstrings.

Yet, for the last 18 months the SFA have been asking some hard questions. Conducting a cost benefit analysis ahead of talks with Queen's Park, due to start next year, over a new 20-year lease. Asking themselves if Hampden now costs more to Scottish football than its worth.

'I was on the SFA board and the Hampden Park boards and I know how hard it is,' adds Smith. 'The only way they could make the stadium pay was by holding open air concerts and events.

'But because of the historic element of Hampden, I feel we should look on it as a national asset.

'It's a place which has hosted some great games down the years, it remains an iconic stadium for Scottish football.

'You think back to the 7-3 Real Madrid-Eintracht final of 1960, a game widely regarded as the most spectacular European Cup Final of all time. Or Zinedine Zidane's goal in 2002.

'Hampden made those possible. So, from my point of view, we should work as a nation to preserve it.'

The next question is an obvious one. How?

Take That played three nights at Hampden in 2011. When they play Glasgow this May, Gary Barlow and chums will perform at the spanking new, high-capacity SSE Hydro instead. Last summer was a profitable wash-out for Hampden; Springsteen, Beyonce, Coldplay and Rihanna all played there. But the dates of Scotland games and Cup Finals can always be predicted; concert tours can't.

Amongst club chairmen, the debate has already started. Some feel the time has come for government help.

Taxpayers funded London's Olympic Stadium before it was handed over to West Ham United. Wembley received £170million of public money.

It took tens of millions from the public purse to salvage a Hampden financial fiasco 20 years ago.

If Scotland feels the need for a national stadium, with the national football team as the sitting tenant, the debate has to start soon.

'There is a large cost to the SFA in remaining at Hampden,' Smith acknowedges.

'I was struck by that when I worked there. The SFA pay a large rental agreement that Queens Park benefit from.'

Former Celtic owner Fergus McCann made the same point vocally in 1995. Hampden, said McCann, was 'unnecessary'.

Twenty years later, the SFA might finally be coming round to his way of thinking.