30th November 1872 saw the first official football international.
This was the first official international match in the world, not just Scotland.
Two years before a “A match between Scotch and English sections" was played at The Oval in London, England in March 1870, oh and don't gripe about the word "Scotch" this was 152 years ago and the term wasn't as frowned upon, we also didn't have T'internet where people get offended for trivial things.
This match was the first match under association rules, the rules we more or less play to this day.
That’s not to say the Oval match wasn’t important. Interestingly though the minute book of the English Football Association does not give any coverage to the 1870 match at the Oval or to four other games which followed between November 1870 and February 1872 – all of which were played in London.
The main reason why these games are not deemed as official is due to the backlash from Scotland. A report in the Glasgow Herald two days after the match in March 1870 claimed that the Scottish team was not representative of footballers in the country. All the players in these games were English based Scots, that is to say they played for English teams.
The grumblings from north of the border grew even louder after A second match, in November 1870, a 1-0 victory for England which was again played at the Oval. One angry correspondent wrote that “it must not be supposed that the eleven who represented us have in their defeat involved our national reputation as athletes.”
It was commented that the Scottish players links with the country were tenuous in the extreme, “such as having gone shooting in the Highlands, or a fondness for Whisky.” however, research into the backgrounds of all 11 players representing Scotland and states that all “would have qualified for Scotland under our modern regulations.”
The problem was that at the time only one club in Scotland played “the association game” was Queen’s Park of Glasgow, other teams had not yet adopted the newer rules and still allowed for “ for running with the ball in hand; the second for obstructing such a run by hacking (kicking an opponent in the shins), tripping and holding.” Sounds like fun eh!
So it was no surprise that when Scotland and England met in the first official game in 1872, all eleven of the Scots were Queen’s Park players. It was a match that kick-started a revolution in Scottish football.
This was not the original intention but the Scots were unable to obtain the services of two countrymen who had competed in the FA Cup final. Arthur F Kinnaird of the Wanderers and Lt Henry Waugh Renny-Tailyour of the Royal Engineers would have to wait until 1873 to play for their country.
While Scotland was eventually represented by eleven men drawn from the Queen’s Park club, England played the match with players from nine different sources selected by Charles Alcock the English Football Association Secretary and captain of the FA Cup winning Wanderers. Alcock, who was the driving force behind the unofficial matches, was unable to play in the first official meeting due to injury but he participated by running the line. Imagine an English player doing that nowadays!
Three England players came from Oxford University but only Reginald Welch played from the successful Wanderers side. Scotland wore dark blue shirts, the then colour of Queen’s Park, with a single lion crest badge attached. The SFA released a replica of that top for the 150th year, although the original tops had a red lion, the 2023 anniversary top had a gold lion.
England, in white, had the badge of the three lions on their shirts.
The crowd, who gathered to watch a goalless draw in the match, numbered 4,000 and they paid an entry fee of a shilling, the same price charged by the English Football Association for the first FA Cup final.
After the success of the game other clubs quickly appeared and on 13th March 1873 the Scottish Football Association was founded to take over the responsibility from Queen’s Park of running the Scotland team, but also to oversee the running of the newly created Scottish FA Cup. Any pretensions that the Football Association in London may have had of running the game throughout the whole of the United Kingdom were quick to recede as Scottish football forged its own independent path.
After the first match the teams met anually unti 1914, not starting again until 1920. The first 13 are marked as friendlies, from match 14 on 15th March 1884 until 26th May 1984, there was also no official matches played between 1939 and 1946. Since 1996 the games have been sporadic.
The games were played as part of the British Home Championship, we just called them the Home Internationals. After the Scotland v England games were marred by pitch invasions and crowd trouble the Home internatiols were scrapped
There was an attempt to keep the Scotland, England fixture with the introduction of The Rous Cup in 1985, the first two years it was a one off match between the two nations, in year 3 it was decided to invite a different South American team to compete each year to create more excitement and to fulfil England and Scotland’s desire to regularly play ‘stronger’ teams. The Rous Cup was discontinued in 1989 and since then matches against the two countries have been more sporadic.
Scotland last played England in the Group D European Championship at Wembley on June 18th 2021, this was the 115th official game and ended in a goalless draw. As of 2023, the teams have played 116 matches; England have won 49, Scotland 41, and there have been 26 draws.
The rivalry between the two countries has been a factor in the matches, Scottish sports journalists traditionally referring to the English as the "Auld Enemy" BBC Online commented that the games "have represented all that is good and all that is bad about football since the fixture began," The Guardian newspaper once reported that "for millions across both sides of the border the encounter represents a chance for the ultimate victory over the enemy."
One of the most notable matches was in 1967 when Scotland beat England 3-2, and the Scots declared themselves unofficial world champions.
The rivalry, to me adds a bit of interest to Inernational competition, The FIFA world Cup and the European Championship, where we have not enjoyed the best of luck, failing to reach the competitions latter stages. During these times many Scots have a "ABE" mantra, meaning they are supporting Anyone but England.










