England vs Scotland Could Return in 2010

While the briefly hyped idea of bringing back the British Home Championships seems to have died a death, the idea of England playing Scotland is apparently alive and (almost) kicking.

English and Scottish FA chief execs Brian Barwick and Gordon Smith have had a series and pow-pows and announced the news today.

“We’ve had discussions about resurrecting the Scotland v England games and it’s definitely back on,” Smith said.

“It might be 2010 before we get a game. The idea would be to establish some sort of relationship for one-off games or even have them bi-annually.”

Why is this important you ask? Well, if you’re English or Scottish then you already know. The England vs Scotland game is like Mexico vs USA or Argentina vs Brazil, except it goes back a lot further and has seen a lot more long balls.

It was also the first ever official game of international football, the two teams meeting on Saturday, 30 November 1872 for a 0-0 draw. Meticulous record keepers England Football Online have some details about that game here, though they optimistically claim that the a match report is still “to come.”

More importantly, this is the type of game that could point to the future of international football. Friendlies are in such a state that Arsene Wenger recently suggested we scrap them altogether. But, for one game at least, England vs Scotland could restore the passion to international friendlies. Because I guarantee neither manager will dare to say “the performance was more important than the result” after losing one of these games.