A concise history of Scottish football | OneFootball

History Of Scottish Football

May 1988: Scottish Cup Final played between Celtic and Dundee United held at Hampden Photo David Cannon /Allsport

It is hard to believe it but the history of football in Scotland stretches back almost 600 years! The oldest existing football in the world dates back to the middle of the 16th century and was discovered in the Royal Palace at the Scottish Stirling Castle. The monarchs of Scotland, for example, James IV truly enjoyed this game. The world’s first known football club was the Scottish Football Club in 1824 in Edinburgh.

Queen’s Park Football Club has played a significant role in the development of Scottish football. Interestingly, it was the club that organised the legendary match between Scotland and England in 1872.

The Scottish Football Association is the second oldest national Football Association in the world. Moreover, the league established in 1890 in Scotland (The Scottish Football League) also prides itself as the third oldest league in the world. Scots who actively traveled during the 19th and 20th centuries brought their football traditions to other countries. A Scotsman, Dr. Alexander Cameron Sim brought football to Japan. There he established the first football Japan club in 1870.

Scottish Association, Scottish Cup, And Scottish Football League

The first football organisation in Scotland was the Scottish Football Association. The Scottish Cup was the second oldest competition in association football. Founded in 1873, it set the rules for games. The Scottish Cup trophy is a silver two-feet high figure. There is also a tradition linked to it: the captain of the winning team has to hold the trophy alone. The first Scottish Cup Final in 1874 took place at Hampden Park. However, it wasn’t the current Hampden Park we know today. Modern Hampden opened only in 1903.

The first Scottish Cup competition was the match between Queens Park FC and a now-defunct team Clydesdale. The first three tournaments were won by Queen’s Park, but the team that won the trophy more times than any other club is the Celtic.

From 1890, when Celtic had won its first Scottish Cup, Celtic and the now defunct Rangers overtook Queen’s Park in terms of influence. The Scottish team in the 1873 match between Scotland and England had 11 players from Scotland’s first football club Queen’s Park. The fanatical rivalry between England and Scotland was the driving force that developed the rapid expansion of Scottish Football.

The Scottish Professional Football League or SPFL for short, featured ten professional and semi-professional teams mostly from Scotland. The only amateur team in the league is Queens Park. Before the Scottish Premier League (SPL) emerged in 1998, the SPFL was the Scottish leading football organisation. It was founded in 1890. The first SPFL season featured ten football clubs. In 2013 both SPFL and SPL formed the Scottish Professional Football League.

Scottish Football Today

Jock Stein and Bobby Murdoch with the European Cup

The most successful Scottish football club in existence is undoubtedly Celtic. These were two football clubs in Scotland on which people most often place their bets whilst enjoying sports betting online. Scots also had a collective name for Celtic and Rangers, the ‘Old Firm’. The rivalry between these teams was deeply rooted in Scottish culture. Historically the core of traditional support for Celtic were people of Irish and Catholic origin, and Rangers’ support was the mostly Scottish and Protestant community.

Celtic though was always a club open to all while Rangers disgracefully for decades had a bigoted policy of not signing Roman Catholics. This of course was self defeating as Celtic were free to sign players from both religions while the old Ibrox club was not due to their own deep rooted bigotry.

The Old Firm rivalry ended with the fixture in April 2012 when Celtic won the last ever Old Firm match 3-0 at Celtic Park. Rangers were crippled by debts and tax scams and the club ceased to exit at the end of that season after the creditors rejected a CVA. Rangers FC went into liquidation and a new phoenix club was founded by Charles Green and they began life in the fourth tier of the Scottish game. The played their first ever match against Celtic in  the 2015 League Cup semi-final, losing 2-0 to the Hoops.  The match since that game has been renamed The Glasgow Derby.

It wasn’t until season 2016-17 that theRangers made their way up through the divisions and into the Scottish Premiership for the first time. In 2021 the new Rangers won the Scottish Premiership for the first time then in May 2022 they added their first ever Scottish Cup win before winning their third major honour just this weekend when they won the league cup for the first time.

So the club founded by Charles Green has now won all three major honours once. Charles Green ludicrous claimed that his new club had the right to claim the old clubs titles as their own because he had bought them. Perhaps he should have phoned Real Madrid to see if their European Cup wins were for sale because that’s the only way that their wild claim of being the most successful club in the world would be accurate – if it’s possible to buy another club’s history and pass it off as your own.

The fierce rivalry between them Celtic and both of the Rangers clubs has a connection to the Irish Question. Simply put, whilst Scottish Protestants thought Ireland had to be under the rule of Great Britain, Irish Catholics wanted Ireland to be an independent country.

Celtic Football Club dates back to 1887 and is famous for winning a total of 53 Scottish Championships. Rangers FC was founded almost fifteen years earlier, in 1872. Rangers FC won 54 Scottish Championships. The Celtic Park of the Celtic FC is the biggest stadium in Scotland. The history of the old Celtic Park is indeed very interesting: it was constructed in only six months by the volunteers. Celtic achieved a historic milestone by becoming British club to win the European Cup, now known as the Champions League, when they defeated Inter Milan in the 1967 final in Lisbon.

The history of Scottish Football is impressive, especially when you consider the magnificent Celtic achievements. Football undoubtedly was and still is more than just a sport for Scots – it is a way of life.