A COMMUNITY group has launched a fund to repair the iconic Hampden Park mural trashed by vandals.

The Hampden Collection has set up a Crowdfunder page to restore the painting to its full glory after it was painted over with graffiti.

Barry Kirk of the Hampden Collection said the group were “gutted” by the vandals’ actions but were hoping to revive the mural, which commemorates the site of the first Hampden Park.

Kirk said of the attack: “It looks pretty amateurish so we’re thinking it’s maybe a new person looking to make a mark for themselves.

“It’s called ‘bombing’ - they’ll go and knacker somebody else’s work to put their tag on it.

“It’s gutting that something that belongs to the city of Glasgow being attacked like this.”

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READ MORE: Vandals trash iconic fan-funded First Hampden Park mural

The Hampden Collection had wanted to get the mural restored before the World Cup play off against Israel in March, but that is unlikely, said Kirk.

“We’ll struggle to restore it for the play-off at the end of March. The artist is really busy, he’s got a lot of projects and he’s away at the moment so he said he might get back to us in a month.”

In the meantime, the group hope to source money to secure the future of any restoration.

Kirk is hopeful about restoring the mural: “It got a reasonably decent response when we put it out there, but we’ve had a lot more people commenting since they’ve seen it damaged.

“I think now people are realising how good it was and how much they liked it.”

The group estimate it will cost around £1000 to restore the painting, by artist Ashley Rowson, but they will need more donations to secure the future of the piece.

The mural showcases the site’s heritage, including Andrew Watson, the first black international footballer.

Kirk said: “Andrew Watson captained Scotland on that ground, there’s a lot of really important history there.

“The first Hampden Park was the first purpose-built football ground in the world, it was the first to be fenced off and it was the first to charge people to watch the football.

“Scotland was undefeated on this ground, we lost a couple of games elsewhere, but Scotland never got beat on the first Hampden.”

The Crowdfunder can be found here.