HISTORY FOOTBALL

England's first International football match was against their fierce rivals Scotland, on 5th March 1870. This event made both countries the oldest national football teams in world football. This inaugural match was organised by the English Football Association, just 2 years later on 30th November 1872 the Scottish football representatives organised the return match between the two sides the result was 0-0.




It took place at Hamilton Crescent, Scotland as is taken to be the first official international between England and Scotland because the two teams were picked and organised by the two independent organisations rather than only the English FA as in the first match in 1870.



The English FA have always run the English national football team since it's first match against Scotland. At the beginning they played all their matches against the home nations' teams which were Scotland, Ireland (later becoming N.Ireland) and Wales (The British Home Internationals).



The English FA first joined FIFA in 1906 only to withdraw in1928 together with all the British association teams due to differences of opinion with FIFA, they later rejoined FIFA again in 1946.



The first home match against a European international team was against the Belgium in 1922. In 1923 Wembley Stadium was used for the first time Scotland again being the opponents result 1-1 draw.



It wasn't until 1953 that England lost their unbeaten record at home 81 years from the first fixture that was played against Scotland. The team to beat them was the great Hungarian Team including 'Puskas' who won 6-3.



England did not take part in the FIFA World Cup until the 1950 World Cup in Brazil, where they did not pass the first group games. Arguments between FIFA and the FA, the two sports governing bodies were the cause of the English team missing out on the first three FIFA World cup finals.



Their biggest triumph came when the World Cup Finals were held in England in 1966 when they went on to win the trophy at Wembley in the historic match against Germany 4-2 after extra time.



Since that victory the England team have never appeared in a major championship cup final coming close in the 1990 World Cup in Italy and 1996 European Championships in England, featuring in semi-final matches losing both on the penalty shoot out.



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