Beautifully Scots

I have always found it amusing the claim by English fans and commentators that a World Cup win would see football “coming home”.

If it were truly “coming home” it would be to Scotland and not to England, for it was the Scots who truly devised the modern version of the game. Without our civilising intervention, what England might have given the world was just another version of rugby.

When the so-called Football Association was formed at the instigation of a young solicitor from Hull, Ebenezer Morley, what he proposed would be seen now as a basis for rugby with extra violence. Morley’s draft laws provided that a player could not only run with the ball in his hands but that opponents could stop him by charging, holding, tripping or hacking. A more civilised code did emerge but the English game was still mainly a question of head-down dribbling.

It was the Scots who had the notion of artfully distributing the ball among the players. It started with young men, from Perthshire and the Highlands mainly, who gathered at Queen’s Park in Glasgow in 1867. They obtained a copy of the FA laws and amended them to conform with an almost scientific blend of dribbling and passing.

When they invented passing, these men had invented football. Far from being an English game, it was one that was conceived to confound the English because the Scots, being generally smaller than their opponents in football’s oldest international

rivalry, could hardly afford to take them on physically.

As Scots we can truly feel some pride this week as England take on Croatia in the World Cup semi-final. To have the English borrowing our history is quite a compliment, the only downside being that we are not in Russia to share in the glory of our invention of the “beautiful game”.

ALEX ORR Leamington Terrace, Edinburgh

As a proud but embarrassed Scot, I feel compelled to write in support of Mike Pearn, who was forced to endure the disgusting behaviour of some Scottish youths whilst watching the England v Colombia football match(letters, 6 July).

I used to travel to Wembley for the biannual England v Scotland match, and whilst some of the behaviour I witnessed went beyond what could be described as “banter”, it was generally good-natured and no worse than might be seen at any all-scottish derby match.

Unfortunately, with the upsurge in nationalism as encouraged by the SNP in recent years the tone has changed altogether into what Mr Pearn described as “obsessive anti-english sentiment”.

When it could accurately be described as banter, this behaviour was confined to the sports arenas, but that is no longer the case. Since the lead-up to the independence referendum there is an open and visceral hatred of the English. This is a feature which the nationalists often deny exists but the majority of Scots are aware of it and are as uncomfortable and disgusted with it as Mr Pearn and his wife were.

If this is the “joyous civic nationalism” that the SNP think their variety is, I can’t wait for the day when it’s a thing of the past.

ALAN THOMSON Kilcamb Paddock, Strontian

Mike Pearn’s letter, to which Douglas Cowe refers (Letters, 9 July) did not state that there was any abuse towards them as individuals. Many people fail to appreciate that most football fans hope their nearest

rivals lose games but they are wrong to conflate this with any anti-english sentiment which all reasonable people rightly condemn.

In England, drunken football fans trashed a Swedish IKEA store and smashed the windscreen of an ambulance, which shows that alcohol combined with sporting rivalry is far more toxic than any differences over self-government or Brexit.

The Tories have used antiscottish sentiment in England

for political advantage, and since Brexit England has become more xenophobic and anti-foreigner, encouraged by the right-wing tabloid newspapers. The majority of Scots object to the arrogance of TV commentators who assume England and the UK is the same thing, and why do English teams use God Save the Queen as their national anthem rather than a specifically English anthem?

Come on Croatia... I couldn’t stand another 52 years of

World Cup final references. But it’s only a game.

FRASER GRANT Warrender Park Road, Edinburgh