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    How International Football Started: Scotland v England 1872
    How International Football Started: Scotland v England 1872
    How International Football Started: Scotland v England 1872
    Ebook85 pages48 minutes

    How International Football Started: Scotland v England 1872

    By Andy Mitchell

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    About this ebook

    England v Scotland is the world football’s oldest rivalry, and this fascinating book tells the story of how it all began.

    Sports historian Andy Mitchell, former head of communications at the Scottish FA, has researched the events that led to the creation of a global phenomenon.

    He brings to life the players who set the ball rolling in first international in Glasgow on 30 November 1872 and describes how this game was not just a beginning but also marked the end of two years of arguments - which included five experimental contests in London and even sparked the first rugby international.

    For historians of the game and anyone interested in football's origins, this is essential reading.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherThe New Curiosity Shop
    Release dateNov 28, 2013
    ISBN9781310608469
    How International Football Started: Scotland v England 1872

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      Book preview

      How International Football Started - Andy Mitchell

      How International Football Started:

      Scotland v England 1872

      Andy Mitchell

      Table of Contents

      Title Page

      Introduction

      A Perfect Passion

      A Lucky Long Kick

      An Unexpected Outcome

      Football’s Watershed Year

      The Real Thing at Last

      History in the Making

      Meet the Author

      Curious About the New Curiosity Shop

      How International Football Started: Scotland v England 1872

      Andy Mitchell

      Copyright © Andy Mitchell 2013

      Published by The New Curiosity Shop at Smashwords

      www.newcurioshop.com

      Edition 1.0

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.

      Cover illustration based on William Ralston’s drawings of the first association football international, published in The Graphic, 14 December 1872.

      Introduction

      Gentlemen desirous of representing England…

      WHAT IS it that brings countries to a standstill when their top players meet on the football field? Why play international football at all?

      Ask those questions today, and fans will explain they share a reflected pride in their nation’s sporting success, and lap up the passion of major tournaments. Players, for all their huge pay packets, still enjoy immense prestige in being asked to represent their country and most do so for no financial reward. Academics have answers, too: one bluntly suggests that nations attain their fullest expression in two ways – war and sport.

      To fully understand the rationale of international football you have to go back to a spring day in 1870, when two teams of gentlemen amateurs representing England and Scotland faced up to each other on a cricket ground in London. Anglo-Scottish rivalry may have been less prevalent in the mid-Victorian era than at other periods in history, yet this encounter was fiercely contested on the pitch and cheered vociferously from the sidelines. Pride, passion, prestige – they have been there from the start.

      The global phenomenon of international football has its roots with those doughty pioneers. Although it takes a leap of imagination to link that event, watched by ‘an assemblage of spectators such as is rarely seen’ (about five hundred), with the hundreds of millions who tune in to a World Cup final, the nationalistic fervour is unmistakeable.

      This book begins with a detailed study of the events and context that led to the playing of the first football internationals under both association and rugby rules. There was a bitter struggle between the codes to be recognised as the ‘true’ footballing representatives of England and Scotland but in the end, both codes won: the international dimension was the making of each of them.

      The early England v Scotland encounters in London are often referred to as ‘pseudo-internationals’ but I consider a more accurate description is that of unofficial internationals. Certainly, from the perspective of the players, there can be little doubt they considered themselves to be representing their countries, and the selectors made every effort to put out the best possible teams from suitably qualified players. Regardless of status, these football games were an attractive proposition because of the personalities who took part.

      The Scotland v England game in November 1872 is generally considered the first official association football contest, but it could be argued that it was essentially between the FA and Queen’s Park FC as the Scottish FA was not formed until March 1873.

      Although rugby and association football have changed out of recognition, one major issue faced in 1870 still resonates today, that of the criteria for international selection. The qualification of some men to play for the unofficial Scotland team, in particular, was hard to fathom: with insufficient players in London of Scottish birth, the selectors opted for men with an appropriate heritage; and if those selected failed to turn up for a match, there was no option but to turn to emergency substitutes, whose Scottishness was secondary to whether they had brought their boots. This led, inevitably, to accusations that some Scots were imposters, with no entitlement to represent the country: a debate that is still alive today thanks to third generation Scots, brought up in England or elsewhere, playing for a motherland they only know from their granny’s knee. The English were not immune, either, choosing players born in India and Ireland, and once the official series got underway, four ‘unofficial’ Scots internationalists – Morten, AK Smith, Chappell and Lindsay – were persuaded to don an England shirt with varying degrees of entitlement. (It is an issue, it should be added, which is not exclusive to these shores, with naturalised Brazilians turning out for Poland or Croatia, talented immigrants choosing France or Germany, and many similar cases.)

      The birth of international football was at times chaotic but, as I recall some highlights of my own life watching Scotland, it was utterly worthwhile.

      Acknowledgements

      First, I must thank the sports historians whose groundwork made this book possible. David Rice’s tenacious detective powers unearthed details of Scotland players that had never previously seen the light of day. The collective biographies of early footballers by Keith Warsop and John Blythe-Smart are indispensable reference points, to which can be added Rob Cavallini’s history of Wanderers FC and Keith Booth’s life of CW Alcock.

      I am particularly pleased to have

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