History of football in Scotland facts for kids
This article tells the story of football in Scotland, from its early beginnings to the modern game.
Contents
Early Football Games (Before 1867)
The exact start of games like football in Scotland is a bit of a mystery. It's possible that different versions of the game came from France or England.
People played "football" in Scotland during the Middle Ages. But these medieval football games were very different from today's association football (soccer). Players could carry the ball, and teams sometimes had dozens of players. There was a lot of pushing and shoving, like in a scrummage. Some of these old games are still played today, for example, the Ba game in Kirkwall and Jedburgh.
The first time "fute-ball" was mentioned in Scotland was in 1424. King James I made it illegal with the Football Act 1424. He might have done this because football was stopping people from practicing for the military. Also, the games were often very rough. Later kings made similar rules, which suggests that people kept playing anyway.
King James VI of Scotland knew how rough football was. In 1599, he wrote that football was "meeter for laming than making able" its players. This means it was more likely to injure you than make you strong. But even kings sometimes played! In 1497, records show that James IV bought footballs. There's also a story that King James V visited Jedburgh to play the ball game there, but we don't have proof.
The rough nature of early Scottish football was a big reason for these royal bans. Old Scottish poems from the 1500s also describe how physical the games were.
One poem from between 1501 and 1512 by Gavin Douglas talks about a "broken shin" and a "bruised arm" from playing ball.
Sir Richard Maitland wrote a poem in the late 1500s. He was happy to be too old for the rough game. He wrote about young men coming from the field with "broken shoulder[s]".
Another old description from the 1500s, called "The Beauties of Foot-ball", describes the game vividly: "Bruised muscles and broken bones, Strife, Discord, and futile blows, Lamed in old age, then crippled withal, These are the beauties of football."
It wasn't just kings who made rules about football. In Perth, young workers becoming master craftsmen in the 1500s had to pay for a feast and hold a football match. In 1546, the Company of Hammermen (metalworkers) in Perth said that workers and apprentices shouldn't play football. If they did, they had to pay a fine. This rule was probably to stop workers from getting hurt or missing work. Other bosses also tried to ban football in Scotland over the years.
Sometimes, early Scottish football games even became violent, with people using weapons. In 1606, during a "fute-ball" match in Lochtoun, some players "fell in contentioun and controversie" and "schot and dilaschit pistolettis and hacquebuttis" (shot pistols and muskets). It was clearly a very intense and dangerous activity. Football in the 1500s was also sometimes used as an excuse for raids across the border into England.
To control this violence, and for religious reasons, football was attacked by Puritans in the 1500s and 1600s. It became illegal to play on a Sunday. For example, in 1607, young people in Aberdeen were accused of playing football on the Sabbath. In 1656, the Scottish Parliament passed a law banning all rough games on Sunday. However, the Puritan attack on football was not as strong in Scotland as in England, and people kept playing with enthusiasm.
There is a record from 1633 (or 1636) of schoolboys playing a ball game in Aberdeen. Some people think this record is important because it mentions passing the ball. The game was clearly rough. Players could tackle, charge, and push opponents. Some think this game was similar to rugby football.
Violence remained a common complaint about Scottish football games for many centuries. In 1648, Sir Patrick Hume wrote that his son "hurt himself so evill at football... that he was not able to sturre". In Jedburgh, the town council banned the ball game in 1704 because "sometimes both old and young near lost their lives thereby". Even so, people still played. In 1724, a complaint from Duns said that football "did always end and determine in the effusion of blood".
Sir Walter Scott called football "his favourite border sport". But he also talked about how rough 1800s Scottish football was. He said the "victory is contested with the utmost fury, and very serious accidents have sometimes taken place".
Scottish football remained very violent into the 1800s. In 1825, a game in Hawick was called "a species of war or fighting". In 1826, the game was banned in Kirkwall because it was disturbing the peace. After this, there were fewer mentions of football in Scotland until the late 1860s. This suggests that the bans finally worked. Because of how violent early Scottish football was, many traditional ball games changed or disappeared in the 1800s. However, some traditional Scottish football games, like the Ba game, still exist today.
The first time written rules for any type of football were used in Scotland was in 1851. This was when Edinburgh Academy adopted rugby football rules to play against other schools. The Edinburgh Academical Football Club is the oldest football club of any type in Scotland.
A "Foot Ball Club" was started in Edinburgh in 1824. It has recently been reformed and now plays association football.
Modern Football Begins (1867–1900)
Scotland was one of the first countries to play modern football. The game became popular after the first rules of association football were created in London in 1863 by The Football Association. Scottish football clubs started forming in the late 1860s and 1870s. Some in Glasgow learned a basic version of the game from men from Callander in Perthshire. This came from traditional holiday games. Queen's Park was Scotland's first football club, founded in 1867. It is the oldest existing football club outside England.
In the late 1860s, Scottish football rules still allowed all players, not just the goalkeeper, to handle the ball. In England, only the goalkeeper could use their hands, and only in their own area. In December 1872, the Scotsman newspaper said there were only about ten football clubs in Scotland.
Even in 1870, football was not well known in Scotland. An English player named C.W. Alcock tried to find Scottish teams to play against an English team, but got no response. One reply to Alcock showed that other sports were more popular in Scotland. It said that "devotees of the 'association' rules will find no foemen worthy of their steel in Scotland".
Between 1870 and 1872, six matches were played between English and Scottish teams in London. These early matches were organized by the Football Association. However, FIFA (which started in 1904) does not officially recognize them as international games. But the Scotsman newspaper did call them "international in character."
Alcock said that even though most players were from London, it was because Scottish players didn't respond to his invitations. He said the chance to play was "open to every Scotchman". He insisted the matches were truly between England and Scotland.
Alcock then decided to send an English team to Glasgow to play a match against Scotland. The first official international match (recognized by FIFA) took place between Scotland and England on 30 November 1872. It was played under the Football Association rules. This match is not where the blue Scotland shirt came from. Reports from an earlier rugby international in February 1872 said that "the scotch were easily distinguishable by their uniform of blue jerseys.... the jerseys having the thistle embroidered".
The 1872 match showed how well the Queen's Park players worked together, as they were all from the same club. Reports from the time describe both English and Scottish players dribbling the ball. For example, "The Scotch now came away with a great rush, Leckie and others dribbling the ball so smartly that the English lines were closely besieged". Scotland almost won, but a shot hit the crossbar, and the game ended 0-0. While Scotland worked better as a team in the first half, England improved in the second half. There is no clear description of passing plays in these early reports. This suggests that the short passing game became common in the mid-1870s.
In the next international match in 1873, Scotland lost to England in London. But in 1874, Scotland won their first international game, beating England 4–2 in Glasgow. It was hard for players to travel far for matches back then. In the 1873 game, only three Scottish players were not from English clubs. In 1875, the two nations drew again. After this, Scotland was much stronger for the next ten years, losing only once to England.
Association football quickly became the most popular sport in Scotland, especially in Glasgow. The Scottish Cup started in 1873. This makes it the second oldest football cup competition in the world. The Scottish Cup quickly became much bigger than the FA Cup, with more teams joining. Early Scottish Cup tournaments were won mostly by Queen's Park and Vale of Leven. These two teams won the first nine cups. The Scottish Football Association was formed in 1873. It is the second oldest football association in the world.
League Football and Professional Players
In the late 1880s, many Scottish players joined English football teams. Paying players became legal in England in 1885. Professional footballers earned good money, which attracted many Scottish players to move south. Some were called "Scotch Professors" because they were so skilled. In Scotland, the game was still supposed to be amateur. Queen's Park, for example, reached the English FA Cup final in 1884 and 1885. Scottish clubs stopped playing in the FA Cup in 1887 because they didn't like professionalism. This also meant that many talented Scottish players who moved to England were not chosen for the national team.
Preston North End was the first English team to win both the league championship and the cup in 1889. Most of their team was made up of Scottish players. Liverpool A.F.C. was also founded in 1892 with a team full of Scots.
Sunderland A.F.C. was another team that benefited from Scottish players. The club became professional in 1885 and signed many Scottish international players. The club's founder, James Allan, left Sunderland in 1888 because he didn't like the "professionalism" that was growing in the club. He then started Sunderland Albion. A wealthy miner named Samuel Tyzack and a shipbuilder named Robert Turnbull funded Sunderland's professional team. Tyzack often pretended to be a priest when looking for players in Scotland. This was because Sunderland's way of recruiting players made many Scottish fans angry. On April 5, 1890, William McGregor, who started the Football League, called Sunderland "the team of all talents". He said they had "a talented man in every position". The Sunderland team that played in the 1895 World Championship was made up entirely of Scottish players.
William McGregor, who grew up in Perthshire, helped create The Football League in England in 1888. This then influenced Scottish football. The Scottish Football League was founded in 1890. Dumbarton and Rangers were joint champions of the first league season after they tied on points and a play-off match was a draw. The league officially became professional in 1893. At this time, 560 players were registered as professionals. A second division was added because so many clubs were joining.
Between 1872 and 1929, Scotland only played matches against the other three Home nations—England, Wales, and Ireland. The British Home Championship started in 1884, making these games competitive. The matches against England were especially intense, and a strong rivalry quickly grew. Scotland was very successful in the early British Championships. They won or shared the title with England almost every year between 1884 and 1890. After that, their results were not as good. England won four out of five titles between 1895 and 1900. This drop in results and the move to professionalism in Scotland led the SFA to allow players from English clubs to play for Scotland in 1896. This helped a lot, and Scotland won four of the next seven titles between 1896 and 1902.
In 1894, football was brought to Brazil by Charles William Miller. He had both Scottish and English family. He learned to play football in England.
Football in the Mid-20th Century (1900–1975)
King James I's ban on football was finally removed in 1906, though people had been ignoring it for a long time before that.
Official football games in Scotland stopped after the United Kingdom declared war on Nazi Germany in September 1939. Games and international matches were played during the Second World War, but official competitions didn't start again until the 1946–47 season.
Scottish football had a great time after the Second World War. Many people went to watch games in the 1950s. Scottish clubs also did well in the new European competitions. A famous example is in 1967, when Celtic became the first team outside of Southern Europe to win the European Cup. This happened while Celtic was winning many titles in Scotland. They won nine league championships in a row between 1966 and 1974. Other teams also had success. Rangers won the 1972 European Cup Winners' Cup. Both Hearts and Hibernian also had great success in Scotland during the 1950s.
Changes and New Teams (1975–1998)
Because Celtic was so dominant and fewer people were attending games in the early 1970s, officials thought about changing Scottish football. Big changes were made to the league system in 1975. A 10-team Premier Division was created. This meant clubs played each other four times a season instead of twice. This change seemed to work at first. Scottish clubs had success in Europe during the 1980s.
Usually, Celtic and Rangers (known as the Old Firm) were the strongest teams. But during this time, two other teams, Aberdeen and Dundee United, became very strong. They were called the New Firm. Aberdeen won the 1983 European Cup Winners' Cup, beating famous teams like Bayern Munich and Real Madrid. Dundee United reached the 1987 UEFA Cup Final, beating FC Barcelona along the way.
Rangers had a tough time in the early 1980s. But they became strong again after Graeme Souness became manager in 1986. He was allowed to buy many top English international players. Players like Chris Woods and Terry Butcher were attracted not just by the money. They also came because Rangers could still play in European competitions. English clubs were banned from Europe after the Heysel Stadium disaster. Rangers then had a period of great success in Scotland, winning nine Scottish League Championships in a row from 1989 to 1997.
Scottish Football in the 21st Century (1998–2023)
At the start of the 21st century, Scottish football was doing well again. Both Celtic and Rangers were playing in European competitions after Christmas, which hadn't happened for decades. Celtic reached the 2003 UEFA Cup final, and Rangers reached the 2008 UEFA Cup final. Both teams also made it to the last 16 of the UEFA Champions League.
The Old Firm rivalry was paused in 2012. This happened when the company running Rangers went into financial trouble. The club had to restart in the fourth division of Scottish football. Rangers and Celtic played each other twice in cup competitions in 2015 and 2016 while Rangers were out of the top league. The rivalry started again when Rangers were promoted to the Scottish Premiership for the 2016–17 season.
Celtic matched the record of nine in a row league titles in 2020. But Rangers broke this streak in 2020–21 with an unbeaten season. Also, St Johnstone won a rare cup double (winning two cups in one season), which was the first time a team outside of Glasgow had done this since 1990. Rangers then reached the 2022 UEFA Europa League final. After this, Celtic became dominant again in Scottish domestic trophies.
See also
- History of the Scotland national football team
- Scottish clubs in the FA Cup
- Scotch Professors
