The Scotland national football team represents Scotland in international football and is controlled by the Scottish Football Association. Scotland are the joint oldest national football team in the world, alongside England, whom they played in the world's first international football match in 1872. Scotland maintains its own national side that competes in all major professional tournaments with the exception of the Olympic Games, as Scotland is not a member of the International Olympic Committee. The majority of Scotland's home matches are held at the national stadium, Hampden Park, with friendly matches sometimes hosted at club stadiums.
Scotland have qualified for the FIFA World Cup on eight occasions and the UEFA European Football Championship twice, but have never progressed beyond the first group stage of a finals tournament. The team have achieved some noteworthy results, however, such as beating the 1966 FIFA World Cup winners England 3–2 at Wembley Stadium in 1967. Archie Gemmill scored what has been described as one of the greatest World Cup goals ever in a 3–2 win during the 1978 World Cup against the Netherlands, who reached the final of the tournament. In their qualifying group for UEFA Euro 2008, Scotland defeated 2006 World Cup runners-up France 1–0 in both fixtures.
Scotland's supporters are collectively known as the Tartan Army. Scotland has a longstanding rivalrly with England, whom they played annually from 1872 until 1989. The last match between the sides was the second leg of a Euro 2000 qualifying play-off at Wembley Stadium in 1999, which Scotland won 1–0, although England won the tie 2–1 on aggregate.
Read more about Scotland National Football Team: FIFA World Cup Record, European Championship Record, Other Honours, Stadium, Media Coverage, Colours, Supporters, Players, Managers, Records, United Kingdom Team
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“You can’t be a Real Country unless you have A BEER and an airline—it helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a BEER.”
—Frank Zappa (1940–1993)
“A custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black, stinking fume thereof nearest resembling the horrible Stygian smoke of the pit that is bottomless.”
—James I of England, James VI of Scotland (1566–1625)
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—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
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—David Storey (b. 1933)
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)