Will the Auld Enemy Return?

January 14th, 2010 | by: Matilda |

This is what football looked like in 1872.

There have been talks about an English-Scotland friendly being bopped about for a while now, but yesterday the Scottish Football Association said:

“We are, as always, willing to engage in open dialogue with our English counterparts…Bring it on.”

I think that it would be great to bring back a match with such historical significance, especially seeing as the two teams haven’t played each other for nearly 11 years. England-Scotland was the first (official) international football match ever played, all the way back in 1872 (it ended 0-0 if you were wondering). To read on up, pop over to the little article the BBC has on it. England went on to play Scotland a further 109 times, winning 45 of these matches and losing 41. However the infamous football hooliganism drew the annual matches to a halt in 1984, the two sides only faced each other intermittently after that.

Well I think it’s safe to say that hooliganism is pretty firmly in the past, I have never, ever felt unsafe at a football match, and I’ve walked through a sea of Scousers proudly wearing my Bolton scarf. It’s time to bring these old games back, it’s nice to have traditions like these, and besides, England fans have to have something to pin their hopes on other than the World Cup.

England Football Team World Cup Blog RSS Feed

http://japan.worldcupblog.org/ Aidan

It would be good to see the fixture return, but I think once a year is a bit too often, given other fixtures. Perhaps every other year would be good?

Similarly the celtic nations are planning to revive the Home Championships, with Republic of Ireland replacing England.
http://www.thismydearisengland.co.uk robert

can we have our old goalposts back ?….pleas ….
http://scotland.worldcupblog.org Ian

I’d be fine with once every other year. 11 years is way too long to wait. For once, here’s a Scotland fan agreeing with the SFA: Bring it on.