The Scottish national team is run by the Scottish Football Association or SFA as it is more commonly known. After playing the world’s first international fixture in 1872 against England, or the ‘Auld Enemy’ as they are sometimes known in Scotland, they are the joint oldest national team alongside England.
Scotland compete in the most important International Tournament, the World Cup, as well as the most important European competition, the European Championships.
The national team hasn’t qualified for the World Cup sing France ’98 where they were narrowly defeated 2-1 by the World Cup holders at that time, Brazil. Despite falling behind to a 5th minute Cesar Sampaio goal Scotland showed character in battling back and equalising through a 38th minute penalty by John Collins. A Tom Boyd own goal in the 78th minute dashed any hope of a shock result in that game.
After drawing 1-1 with Norway Scotland went on to be defeated 3-0 by Morocco and exited the tournament after finishing bottom of their group. Despite qualifying 8 times for the World Cup, Scotland has never qualified beyond the first round.
Scotland has only qualified for the European Championships twice in 1992 and 1996. The 1996 tournament which was held in England saw Scotland come agonisingly close to qualification after finishing joint second in the group stages with the Netherlands who qualified on goals scored.
The most capped Scottish player is legend Kenny Dalglish who played for the Scottish national team 102 times. The highest goal scorer in Scotland’s history is Denis Law who netted 30 times for his country but it is Hughie Gallacher who has the highest goal per game ration at 1.2 after scoring 24 in 20.