England vs. Scotland Should Be Here to Stay in the International Calendar

By
at Internationaled.org

Published: November 19, 2014

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In the last 25 years, England vs. Scotland has been something of a rarity. Since the annual Rous Cup, introduced in 1985 to fill the gap left by the discontinued Home Internationals, was itself discontinued partly due to concerns over crowd violence, the two teams have faced each other only a handful of times.

Five times, in fact: The semi-final of Euro 1996, the two-legged qualifying playoffs for Euro 2000, and then the two friendlies, last season and this.

It is said that familiarity breeds contempt, but the opposite is true as well. In the quarter of a century since England vs. Scotland was last a regular fixture, appetite for the game has grown to the extent that it now looks as if it will now happen more frequently again.



And one can see why. It was occasionally easy to forget during Tuesday night's game, won 3-1 by England thanks to goals from Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Wayne Rooney, that this was only a friendly, that nothing tangible was at stake for the two sides at Celtic Park, such was the noise and excitement surrounding the game.

This is a rivalry that seems to exist on roughly the right level at present. Subjectively judging from the crowd, there seems to be just enough animosity to give the game the levels of spice and tension that one would expect from England vs. Scotland, but not enough for it to spill over into anything more unpleasant.

In 1989, the game was marred by violence before, during and after the game in Glasgow, but there seemed to be little of that this time.

Of course, a certain amount of vigilance has to be displayed, as there are still elements of the "hooligan" past in the England support, as was demonstrated by the singing of anti-IRA songs, as reported by the Guardian, an echo of the prevailing behaviour when going to an England game was akin to attending a political rally.



However, this sort of game should be welcomed on...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - International Football

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