10. Getting To Play Each Other
Football is the national sport of Great Britain it is the national sports of Great Britain, it is the ingrained in the psyche of the public. Once in a while we set aside the tribalism that comes with supporting our clubs for a different kind of tribalism, international football. Despite how multinational the game has become and how successful the Premier League is, there is no more unifying force in sport than the national team. With that said why have the national teams of Great Britain been allowed to play each other so little, England and Scotland have not played each other since 1999. England vs Scotland was the first international football match to have ever been played and as such is the oldest rivalry in the history of sport, the idea of international fixtures started here, there would be no World Cup without this game. A friendly at Wembley is scheduled for August and that will be the first meeting between the two sides in 14 years, which is plainly unacceptable. The rivalry between every country in Great Britain is too important to be glossed over, if they did not have to play each other in qualifying does anybody really think that Brazil and Argentina would go this long without a game? While the teams might not be as good as the South American giants, the competition between the nations of the UK is just as important to those of us that live here.