The

Scotland national football team The Scotland national football team represents Scotland in men's international Association football, football and is controlled by the Scottish Football Association. They compete in three major professional tournaments: the FIFA World Cup, UEFA ...

represents

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

in international

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

and is controlled by the

Scottish Football Association The Scottish Football Association (; also known as the Scottish FA and the SFA) is the governing body of football in Scotland and has the ultimate responsibility for the control and development of football in Scotland. Members of the SFA incl ...

. It is the joint-oldest national football team in the world, alongside

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, Scotland's opponents in what is now recognised as the world's first international football match, which took place at

Hamilton Crescent Hamilton Crescent is a cricket ground in the Partick area of Glasgow, Scotland, which is the home of the West of Scotland Cricket Club. It was previously also used for association football and hosted the first international football match in ...

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

in November 1872. Prior to this, a series of matches had been played between teams representing the two countries, but the Scottish team was drawn almost entirely from players based in and around London and these games are now not regarded as full international matches. The lack of involvement by players from Scottish clubs in these matches led to some controversy, which was resolved when

The Football Association The Football Association (the FA) is the Sports governing body, governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Bailiwick of Guernsey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest footb ...

arranged to send a team to play in Glasgow, where the English players took on a Scotland team composed entirely of players from the Queen's Park club. Between 1872 and 1914, when competitive football was interrupted by the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, Scotland played 113 international matches, resulting in 70 victories, 23 draws and 20 defeats. This total does not include a match in 1902 which was declared void after a disaster at Ibrox Park in which 25 spectators died. Scotland played an annual friendly against England each year until 1883, and added a regular game against

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

in 1876. These two teams remained Scotland's only opponents until the

British Home Championship The British Home Championship (historically known as the British International Championship or simply the International Championship) was an annual football competition contested between the United Kingdom's four national teams: England, Scotlan ...

was instituted in 1884, consisting of a

round-robin tournament A round-robin tournament or all-play-all tournament is a competition format in which each contestant meets every other participant, usually in turn.''Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged'' (1971, G. & ...

between England, Scotland, Wales and

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

. Of the 31 tournaments staged prior to the war, Scotland won 10 outright and 6 jointly. Scotland's 11–0 defeat of Ireland in 1901 is the national team's biggest win, and the 6–1 victory over England at

Kennington Oval Kennington is a district in south London, England. It is mainly within the London Borough of Lambeth, running along the boundary with the London Borough of Southwark, a boundary which can be discerned from the early medieval period between th ...

in 1881 remains the team's biggest win away to fierce rivals England. Scotland's games with England during this period drew extremely large crowds, with five matches prior to the First World War attracting crowds of over 100,000 spectators. The compilers of the

World Football Elo Ratings The World Football Elo Ratings are a ranking system for men's national association football teams that is published by the website eloratings.net. It is based on the Elo rating system but includes modifications to take various football-specific v ...

retrospectively consider Scotland to have been ranked at number 1 during much of the early period of international football.

Key

;Key to matches: *Att. = Match attendance *(H) = Home ground *(A) = Away ground ;Key to record by opponent: *P = Games played *W = Games won *D = Games drawn *L = Games lost *GF = Goals for *GA = Goals against

Results

''Scotland's score is shown first in each case.'' ;Notes *A. This match replaced the original England–Scotland game, played at the new

Ibrox Park Ibrox Stadium is a football stadium on the south side of the River Clyde in the Ibrox area of Glasgow, Scotland. The home of Scottish Premiership team Rangers, Ibrox is the third-largest football stadium in Scotland, with an all-seated ca ...

on 5 April, which was declared void after a

disaster A disaster is an event that causes serious harm to people, buildings, economies, or the environment, and the affected community cannot handle it alone. '' Natural disasters'' like avalanches, floods, earthquakes, and wildfires are caused by na ...

in which 25 spectators died.

Record by opponent

British Home Championship record by season

References

External links