The men's national football teams of the four Home Nations of the United Kingdom have played each other more times than any other footballing nations in the world. The world's first international football match was played between Scotland and England in Glasgow in 1872 (a 0–0 draw). From then on, all four teams started playing regular friendlies against each other. In 1883 a formal competition between the UK's teams, the British Home Championship, was introduced, guaranteeing that each team would play the other three at least once a season. The Championship was discontinued in 1984, partly due to problems of crowd trouble, and partly due to the desire of England (and to a lesser extent Scotland) to contest international fixtures against larger and more powerful nations.
While the British Home Championship was being played, the UK teams were also drawn together on a number of occasions during qualification competitions for the FIFA World Cup and UEFA European Championship. Early tournaments simply used the British Championship as a qualifying group, but during qualification for the 1974 World Cup, England and Wales were drawn in the same group. Subsequent to this, three more qualification tournaments saw UK teams drawn together while the British Championship was being played. Since the end of the British Home Championship, the teams have played each other mainly when drawn together in international competitions such as the European Championship or the World Cup, with occasional friendly fixtures.[1][2][3][4]
At men's major national tournaments, Home Nations teams have met four times at the UEFA European Championships. England and Wales played the first ever Home Nations tie at a World Cup when they played each other at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar with England winning the match 3-0.[5]
Teams –
England
Northern Ireland (as
Ireland between 1882 and 1950)
Scotland
Wales
FIFA World Cup
UEFA European Championship
- ↑ First match between British countries at a major championship
- ↑ First match between British countries played outside the UK and Ireland.
- ↑ First match involving Northern Ireland and another British team played outside the UK and Ireland; first knockout match between any two British countries in a major tournament.
British Home Championship
The British Home Championship (also known as the Home International Championship, the Home Internationals and the British Championship) was an annual football competition contested between the United Kingdom's four national teams: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland (the last of whom competed as Ireland for most of the competition's history). Starting during the 1883–84 season, it was the oldest international football tournament and it was contested until the 1983–84 season, when it was abolished after 100 years.
The 1949–50 and 1953–54 championships doubled up as qualifying stages for the 1950 FIFA World Cup and 1954 FIFA World Cup respectively.
Friendlies
Date | Score | Venue | Notes | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
30 November 1872 | Scotland ![]() |
0–0 | ![]() |
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|
8 March 1873 | England ![]() |
4–2 | ![]() |
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|
7 March 1874 | Scotland ![]() |
2–1 | ![]() |
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|
6 March 1875 | England ![]() |
2–2 | ![]() |
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|
4 March 1876 | Scotland ![]() |
3–0 | ![]() |
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|
25 March 1876 | Scotland ![]() |
4–0 | ![]() |
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|
3 March 1877 | England ![]() |
1–3 | ![]() |
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|
5 March 1877 | Wales ![]() |
0–2 | ![]() |
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|
2 March 1878 | Scotland ![]() |
7–2 | ![]() |
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|
23 March 1878 | Scotland ![]() |
9–0 | ![]() |
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|
18 January 1879 | England ![]() |
2–1 | ![]() |
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|
5 April 1879 | England ![]() |
5–4 | ![]() |
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|
7 April 1879 | Wales ![]() |
0–3 | ![]() |
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|
13 March 1880 | Scotland ![]() |
5–4 | ![]() |
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|
15 March 1880 | Wales ![]() |
2–3 | ![]() |
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|
27 March 1880 | Scotland ![]() |
5–1 | ![]() |
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|
18 January 1881 | England ![]() |
0–1 | ![]() |
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|
12 March 1881 | England ![]() |
1–6 | ![]() |
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|
14 March 1881 | Wales ![]() |
1–5 | ![]() |
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|
18 February 1882 | Ireland ![]() |
0–13 | ![]() |
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|
25 February 1882 | Wales ![]() |
7–1 | ![]() |
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|
11 March 1882 | Scotland ![]() |
5–1 | ![]() |
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|
13 March 1882 | Wales ![]() |
5–3 | ![]() |
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|
25 March 1882 | Scotland ![]() |
5–0 | ![]() |
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|
3 February 1883 | England ![]() |
5–0 | ![]() |
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|
24 February 1883 | England ![]() |
7–0 | ![]() |
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|
10 March 1883 | England ![]() |
2–3 | ![]() |
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|
12 March 1883 | Wales ![]() |
0–3 | ![]() |
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|
17 March 1883 | Wales ![]() |
1–1 | ![]() |
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|
14 February 1973 | Scotland ![]() |
0–5 | ![]() |
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|
24 March 1976 | Wales ![]() |
1–2 | ![]() |
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|
18 February 1992 | Scotland ![]() |
1–0 | ![]() |
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|
27 May 1997 | Scotland ![]() |
0–1 | ![]() |
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|
18 February 2004 | Wales ![]() |
4–0 | ![]() |
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|
6 February 2007 | Northern Ireland ![]() |
0–0 | ![]() |
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|
20 August 2008 | Scotland ![]() |
0–0 | ![]() |
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|
14 November 2009 | Wales ![]() |
3–0 | ![]() |
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|
14 August 2013 | England ![]() |
3–2 | ![]() |
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|
18 November 2014 | Scotland ![]() |
1–3 | ![]() |
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|
25 March 2015 | Scotland ![]() |
1–0 | ![]() |
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|
24 March 2016 | Wales ![]() |
1–1 | ![]() |
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|
8 October 2020 | England ![]() |
3–0 | ![]() |
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|
12 September 2023 | Scotland ![]() |
1–3 | ![]() |
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|
26 March 2024 | Scotland ![]() |
v | ![]() |
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Others
Date | Competition | Score | Venue | Notes | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
25 May 1985 | Rous Cup | Scotland ![]() |
1–0 | ![]() |
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|
23 April 1986 | Rous Cup | England ![]() |
2–1 | ![]() |
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|
23 May 1987 | Rous Cup | Scotland ![]() |
0–0 | ![]() |
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|
21 May 1988 | Rous Cup | England ![]() |
1–0 | ![]() |
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|
27 May 1989 | Rous Cup | Scotland ![]() |
0–2 | ![]() |
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|
9 February 2011 | 2011 Nations Cup | Northern Ireland ![]() |
0–3 | ![]() |
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|
25 May 2011 | 2011 Nations Cup | Wales ![]() |
1–3 | ![]() |
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|
27 May 2011 | 2011 Nations Cup | Wales ![]() |
2–0 | ![]() |
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Head to head
England
Opponent | Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | W% |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | 98 | 75 | 16 | 7 | 76.53 |
![]() | 112 | 47 | 24 | 41 | 41.96 |
![]() | 102 | 67 | 21 | 14 | 65.69 |
Northern Ireland
Opponent | Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | W% |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | 98 | 7 | 16 | 75 | 7.14 |
![]() | 95 | 15 | 17 | 63 | 15.79 |
![]() | 96 | 28 | 24 | 44 | 29.17 |
Scotland
Opponent | Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | W% |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | 112 | 41 | 24 | 47 | 36.61 |
![]() | 95 | 63 | 17 | 15 | 66.32 |
![]() | 107 | 61 | 23 | 23 | 57.01 |
Wales
Opponent | Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | W% |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | 102 | 14 | 21 | 67 | 13.73 |
![]() | 96 | 44 | 24 | 28 | 45.83 |
![]() | 107 | 23 | 23 | 61 | 21.5 |
British Overseas Territories
Seven British Overseas Territories have a national football team affiliated to FIFA – Anguilla, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Gibraltar, Montserrat and Turks and Caicos Islands. All play within the CONCACAF (North American) area, with the exception of Gibraltar. This makes fixtures between the Home Nations and the overseas territories rare, although the North American overseas territories play between each other often.
In 2013, the Gibraltar Football Association became a member of UEFA enabling their national team to play international fixtures. This opened the possibility of Gibraltar playing against a Home Nation during the qualification phase of major international competitions. To date, there have only been two matches between Gibraltar and one of the Home Nations – Scotland played them twice as part of their UEFA Euro 2016 qualification group, beating them on both occasions. These fixtures are the only occasions when a Home Nation and an overseas territory have played each other in an official international match.
Date | Competition | Score | Venue | Notes | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
29 March 2015 | UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying | Scotland ![]() |
6–1 | ![]() |
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|
11 October 2015 | UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying | Gibraltar ![]() |
0–6 | ![]() |
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Matches between CONCACAF overseas territories
Unofficial matches
Date | Competition | Score | Venue | Notes | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
9 September 1999 | Friendly | Bermuda ![]() |
3–1 | ![]() |
||
11 September 1999 | Friendly | Bermuda ![]() |
1–0 | ![]() |
||
25 February 2000 | Friendly | British Virgin Islands ![]() |
3–4 | ![]() |
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|
27 February 2000 | Friendly | British Virgin Islands ![]() |
4–0 | ![]() |
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|
6 July 2002 | Friendly | British Virgin Islands ![]() |
2–1 | ![]() |
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|
4 July 2007 | 2007 Island Games | Gibraltar ![]() |
2–0 | ![]() |
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|
18 September 2010 | Friendly | British Virgin Islands ![]() |
2–1 | ![]() |
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|
7 July 2012 | Friendly | British Virgin Islands ![]() |
1–0 | ![]() |
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|
15 July 2013 | 2013 Island Games | Bermuda ![]() |
8–0 | ![]() |
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|
11 November 2018 | Friendly | Falkland Islands ![]() |
1–3 | ![]() |
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[6] |
See also
References
- ↑ "Scotland – International Results". RSSSF. Retrieved 23 June 2016.
- ↑ "England – International Results". RSSSF. Archived from the original on 26 April 2003. Retrieved 23 June 2016.
- ↑ "(Northern) Ireland – International Results". RSSSF. Retrieved 23 June 2016.
- ↑ "International matches of Wales". RSSSF. Retrieved 23 June 2016.
- ↑ McNulty, Phil. "Wales 0-3 England-Rashford double sees England top group as Wales exit". www.bbc.co.uk. BBC Sport. Retrieved 29 November 2022.
- ↑ "What Liam Ferdinand will be up to on the Falkland Islands". Football In Bracknell. Retrieved 8 November 2018.