Queen's Park will return to Hampden next season after agreeing a deal with the Scottish Football Association.

The cinch Championship runners-up played their home games at Stenhousemuir's Ochilview last season while their Lesser Hampden home was being renovated.

They will start next season in the ground in the shadow of Hampden before moving to their former home in the national stadium in September.

Talks had started while Queen's were pushing for promotion to the Premiership but the deal has gone ahead despite the club being pipped to the title by Dundee on the final day and losing to Partick Thistle in the play-offs.

In a joint statement, Queen's and the SFA revealed that Scotland national teams would use Lesser Hampden as a training base and the national stadium would be available for the Spiders after Scotland host England on September 12.

The Hampden pitch will be "fully renovated" following a Red Hot Chili Peppers concert on July 23.

SFA chief executive Ian Maxwell said: "Steve Clarke and the men's national team have already spoken highly of Lesser Hampden, having used it as a training base for the back-to-back wins against Cyprus and Spain in the UEFA Euro 2024 qualifiers, and hopefully it can continue to play a part in our success.

"With the increasing fixture calendar across all of our national teams, and with the need to ensure provision for coach education and referee training and development, it is hugely beneficial to access Lesser Hampden as well as our long-standing partnership with the National Performance Centre at Oriam."

Queen's Park chief executive Leeann Dempster declared the club were excited to be returning to Hampden.

"While we continue our redevelopment of Lesser Hampden, we are happy to provide the state-of-the-art facilities to the Scotland national teams as part of the rental agreement," she said.

"I'm sure our fans and visiting fans will look forward to games at Hampden Park next season and we are also pleased to be able to support the efforts of our national teams in the process."

Queen's Park and the SFA reached a reported £5million deal for the governing body to take on Hampden in June 2019 and the transfer of ownership was completed in August 2020.

The redevelopment of Lesser Hampden has taken about two years longer than expected but is nearing completion. The ground will have a capacity of about 1,700 with scope for further expansion.

Queen's Park have also played home games at Airdrie and Partick Thistle's Firhill in recent seasons.

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