The Scotland national semi-professional football team was a
football team that represented
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...
. The Scotland semi-professional team competed in the
Four Nations Tournament and was organised by the
Scottish Football Association (SFA).
The team was disbanded in 2008, when the SFA board decided to stop providing the finance needed for the team to operate.
At the time the team was disbanded, players in the three senior non-leagues, the
East of Scotland Football League,
Highland Football League and
South of Scotland Football League
The South of Scotland Football League (SoSFL) is a senior football league based in south-west Scotland. The league sits at level 6 on the Scottish football league system, acting as a feeder to the Lowland Football League.
Founded in 1946, it i ...
, were eligible for selection.
History
The semi-pro team was first formed in the late 1970s. The first incarnation of the team was originally made of players from
Scottish Football League clubs outside the
Premier Division. The most recent incarnation of the team (1990s and 2000s) was made of players selected from the two of the three former
senior non leagues in Scotland; the
Highland League and the
East of Scotland League
The East of Scotland Football League (EoSFL) is a senior football league based in the east and south-east of Scotland. The league sits at levels 6–9 on the Scottish football league system, acting as a feeder to the Lowland Football League.
Fo ...
. The third senior non league was the
South of Scotland League, which had not had a select side for long time, hampering scouting and selection, which coupled with friction over travel issues effectively saw what few players of calibre they had excluded.
[Scotland Semi-Pro Internationals]
scottishleague.net. 25-04-2009. Retrieved 20-10-2013.[Since 2013-14 season there are only two senior non-leagues the Highland League and Lowland League (was a merger of East of Scotland and South of Scotland Leagues.)]
The semi-pro team regularly played friendlies against a Highland League Select. They also regularly played preparation games against Scottish Football League clubs prior to international tournaments in the 1980s.
The team was disbanded by the
Scottish FA
The Scottish Football Association (also known as the SFA and the Scottish FA; sco, Scots Fitba Association; Scottish Gaelic: ''Comann Ball-coise na h-Alba'') is the governing body of football in Scotland and has the ultimate responsibility for ...
in November 2008. The Scottish FA decided to withdraw funding for the semi-professional side in order to save money, more than £20,000 worth of funding was pulled.
Four Nations Tournament
There was no officially sanctioned competition by either
UEFA
Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; french: Union des associations européennes de football; german: Union der europäischen Fußballverbände) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs f ...
or
FIFA for national teams at non-league level, but Scotland competed in the annual
Four Nations Semi-Pro Tournament between 1979 and 2008. The competition was abandoned from 1988 to 2001, while no competition took place in 1986.
The first eight editions of the tournament (1979–1987) saw Scotland compete against
England Semi-Pro,
Netherlands
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Amateurs and
Italy Serie C U-21s. The later reinstatement of the competition saw the semi-pro teams of Scotland,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
,
Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...
and
Republic of Ireland
Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern ...
compete from 2002 to 2008. The
Gibraltar
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, map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green
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national team replaced Ireland in the last edition.
Scotland last hosted the Four Nations Tournament in 2007, when matches were played in
Dingwall
Dingwall ( sco, Dingwal, gd, Inbhir Pheofharain ) is a town and a royal burgh in the Highland council area of Scotland. It has a population of 5,491. It was an east-coast harbour that now lies inland. Dingwall Castle was once the biggest cas ...
,
Inverness and
Brora.
Scotland withdrew from the competition after 2008.
*1979 Third-Place
*1980 Winners
*1981 Third-Place
*1982 Winners
*1983 Runners-Up
*1984 Fourth-Place
*1985 Winners
*1986 ''no competition''
*1987 Third-Place
*1988-2001 ''no competition''
*2002 Fourth-Place
*2003 Runners-Up
*2004 Runners-Up
*2005 Runners-Up
*2006 Third-Place
*2007 Third-Place
*2008 Third-Place
Tournament Managers
Other matches
References
{{Football in Scotland
Semi-pro
''Semi-Pro'' is a 2008 American sports comedy film. The film was directed by Kent Alterman in his directorial debut, written by Scot Armstrong, and produced by Jimmy Miller. It stars Will Ferrell, Woody Harrelson, André Benjamin and Maura Tier ...
European national semi-professional association football teams
1970s establishments in Scotland