A PART of Scottish history, exiled south of the Border for almost a

decade after being banned by football bosses, is set to return and take

pride of place in a planned museum at Hampden Park.

The famous Hampden square goalposts are earmarked to take pride of

place in the museum when the south stand at the national stadium is

redeveloped.

Until then, they will be sited at a football mini-exhibition being set

up at the Transport Museum in Glasgow.

The current owner of the goalposts, Maryhill-born publican Bill

Campbell, who runs The Cross Inn at Kinver in the West Midlands, is

delighted they will be returned.

Mr Campbell, 48, bought the goalposts, stanchions, and nets for #6200,

when they came up for auction eight years ago, on behalf of a syndicate

of business people.

Yesterday, he said: ''They should never have left Scotland in the

first place. I am delighted they are going back.

''I originally bought them to stop them falling into the wrong hands.

There were people who wanted to break them up into ornaments. But they

are a very important part of Scottish football history and should be

kept as such.''

The square posts were installed at Hampden in 1903 and were there

until 1987, when they were outlawed by international football

authorities.

During the 84 years they were on site, they saw 288 international

goals as well as countless other scores in cup final and European

matches.

Until two years ago, the football posts graced the roof of Bill's

former pub The Farmers Boy, in Kidderminster, Worcestershire, and

brought him dozens of curious customers. Scottish football great Denis

Law, who put a few goals between them, even took time to visit the pub.

Mr Richard Williams, assistant curator of the planned museum, said:

''Naturally we are over the moon that Mr Campbell is allowing us to have

the posts on loan and hopefully we will be able to buy them in the

future and make them part of the display at a permanent museum.''

Along with his boss, Mr Ged O'Brien, Mr Williams, from Merthyr Tydfil,

Wales, will scour the country seeking out football memorabilia. They

already have more than #200,000 in funding from Glasgow City Council,

the GDA, the SFA, and Strathclyde European Partnership.

Mr O'Brien is hoping the museum at Hampden will cover 57,000sq ft and

have 10,000sq ft of storage space.

He said: ''This will be the first national football museum in the

world. We are certainly ahead of the game and there is no doubt Glasgow

is the number-one city in the world in terms of football history.''