Sports: Where the dream began
Football’s oldest rivalry returns but are England and Scotland irrelevant in the modern game?
The rivalry between England and Scotland is the oldest in international football. The pair first met in the world’s first-ever international almost 145 years ago and since that day in November 1872 when the final whistle blew on a goalless draw, they have played 113 times. This Saturday evening at Hampden Park they will come face to face for the 114th time.
England are favorites in this World Cup qualifier and it was the Auld Enemy that triumphed over Scotland in the reverse fixture in November, winning 3-0 at Wembley thanks to goals from Daniel Sturridge, Adam Lallana and Gary Cahill. The Three Lions are top of this qualifying group, unbeaten in their five matches and four points clear of second-placed Slovakia on nine points. Scotland sit in fourth position at the halfway stage, two points behind the Slovaks and one off Slovenia.
Hopes alive
The Scots are in a good position to qualify and three points on Saturday would go a long way toward that, but they have not beaten their southern neighbors since 1999 and even that 1-0 win at Wembley counted for nought – England had won the first leg of their Euro 2000 qualifying playoff 2-0 and proceeded to the tournament. It will have been little consolation to Scotland’s players that their conquerors in qualifying were sent home from Holland and Belgium in the group stages.
Sadly, finding joy in England’s inevitable misfortune at international tournaments has become the best that Scotland fans can hope for these days. Their most recent World Cup was France 98 and they have not appeared at European Championships since England hosted the tournament in 1996. Scotland were the only one of the home nations not to qualify for last summer’s expanded Euros in France.
Scotland’s record against England over the years – and they played every season in the British Championship for 100 years from 1883-84 and continued to meet until 1989 – is a creditable 41 wins to England’s 48. However, only one of those has come in the last 10 games, that meaningless victory 18 years ago. It’s easy to say that Scottish football is living in the past.
Storied past
Scottish players and managers used to be among the best in the world. This year marks 50 since Celtic’s Lisbon Lions became the first British side to win the European Cup with a team all born within 30 miles (48 kilometers) of Celtic Park – the same year that Rangers made their second appearance in the Cup Winners’ Cup final. The following year Manchester United became the first English side to lift the trophy but it was masterminded by a Scotsman, Sir Matt Busby, while Pat Crerand played and former Ballon d’Or winner Denis Law would have but for injury.
No other Scottish team has won it since – although Aberdeen won the Cup Winners’ Cup and Celtic, Rangers and Dundee United went close in the UEFA Cup and Europa League – but for a time Scottish players and managers were serial winners. Bill Shankly’s Liverpool sides, Graeme Souness and Kenny Dalglish as both player and manager at Anfield, George Graham at Arsenal and Sir Alex Ferguson’s 26 trophy-laden years at Manchester United witnessed Scottish domination in England and Europe. Ferguson’s retirement in 2013 ended that glittering lineage of Scottish champions at English clubs and it’s not been much better domestically.
The Scottish league has long been a closed shop. It’s 33 years since a team other than Rangers or Celtic won it (Ferguson’s Aberdeen). Nowadays, thanks to Rangers’ financial mismanagement and subsequent demotion, it has been six in a row for Celtic. This season they won the domestic treble, smashing records along the way. They are the first team to go unbeaten in the league since 1898 and won with a European-record 106 points, 30 ahead of second place, and secured the title with eight games to spare, both Scottish records.
It’s a situation that’s not good for the league or the national team. Of the seven domestic-based players in Saturday’s squad, only one doesn’t play for Celtic. The rest of their squad play for teams in the bottom half of the English Premier League and the Championship. It’s a far cry from the days when Scotland could call up players who were being mentioned in the Ballon d’Or or winning league titles and European trophies at teams south of the border.
Embarrassment
The sad truth is that both nations are something of an irrelevance on the international stage. While Scotland struggle to qualify, England inevitably do so at a canter but their presence at tournaments is more of a concern for the local authorities than the opposition on the pitch. It’s ironic that this week the FA announced the first-ever life bans for England fans ahead of playing Scotland given that their annual fixtures ended because of hooliganism; it’s also worrying that it’s an evening kickoff on a Saturday.
The embarrassment is not confined to the stands. An England side has not made the semifinals of a major tournament since the 1990s and while the Premier League has made English clubs some of the most watched and wealthiest in the world, it has not coincided with an upturn in the national team’s fortunes. If anything it has made them less likely to leave the comforts of home: All of the current squad play in the English top flight, while the pre-Premier League England squads included foreign-based players including those playing in Scotland.
With the relevance of these two proud footballing nations diminished, it seems apt that the teams are not even going to play in their traditional blue-and-white kits on Saturday. FIFA have declared that the home kits clash and England have to wear their red kits, much like Scotland had to wear their away kits in the previous meeting. The days of this being the biggest fixture in football seems a long time ago and that’s not going to change any time soon, even if both nations make it to Russia next summer.