‘Did you know there used to be a 6 Nations for football?’
‘Seriously? With France and Italy?’
‘No, just the ‘home nations’. Only 4 then, I suppose’
‘A united Ireland, like in rugby?’
‘No. Northern Ireland, the Republic weren’t in it’
‘Did Wales win it a lot?’
‘Not really’
The following transcript is of a father explaining to his son (me), the idiosyncrasies of the former British Home Championship. As a young Welsh boy, growing up in the 90s, my memories were punctuated with (rare) victories over England, in the oval ball code. When Wales would play England back then, our victories were far less frequent than in modern times. But a narrow victory in 1999 at Wembley, with a last minute try was a high point in Welsh cultural identity. Scott Gibbs’ winner has since been immortalised on t-shirts, coasters
and tea towels, a visual representation of a modern, confident, post-devolution Wales.
It seemed inconceivable to me back then, that there could be an annual football fixture between the two sides, as part of a wider tournament to crown the kings of British football. The premier league was in it’s infancy, but had already revolutionised how we consumed football. In Cwm Rhondda, my hometown 16 miles north of Cardiff, Liverpool and Manchester United shirts outnumbered Cardiff City twenty to one. I didn’t know anyone who supported Cardiff, and I’d certainly never walked down the Sloper Road to the infamous
Ninian Park. Although the Welsh national rugby team was, and to many still is, the most beloved institution in the country, it was hard as a young boy to see the Welshness in football.
Rugby felt partisan to me on every level; village vs village, town vs city and nation vs nation. In a way that football, which I consumed exclusively as a broadcast sport, simply did not.
I wonder how my view of football, as a boy would have been different, had I grown up during the British Home Championship. Used sometimes as a yardstick to measure the home nations against one another, occasionally as a qualifier for major tournaments and always presenting the opportunity for bragging rights over your nearest rivals.
The British Home Championships began in earnest in the 1870s with matches played
between England, Scotland and Wales. However in 1884 the full tournament took place, with
Scotland triumphant, claiming the maiden title, England finished second, Wales third and the
Ireland national football team (as it was known prior to the 1921 partition) fourth. The
tournament now had a structure and a prize. Giants Scotland and England would go on to
share titles throughout the 19th century, until Wales’ first title win in 1907.
The tournament was pioneering in its use of a round robin cup format, which rewarded consistency across 3 games, rather than a knock out style tournament such as the FA Cup.
Unfortunately, the tournament would also pioneer the far more tragic phenomenon of the 20th Century – The stadium disaster. On the 5th of April 1902, Ibrox stadium witnessed the first major stadium disaster, where 25 fans died as the result of the collapse of the West Tribune stand, during the England Scotland fixture.
Organisers and stadium owners escaped punishment, with the tragedy cited as a failure of materials, rather than the avarice of packing half the 68,000 fans in one stand. Timber merchant Alexander McDougall was charged with culpable homicide for the incident, accounting to the poor quality of pine used in the construction of the stand. Even in its embryonic form, football had lost its innocence, In The Football Grounds of Great Britain Simon Inglis says ‘even the cries of dying sufferers nor the sight of broken limbs could attract this football maddened crowd from gazing upon their beloved sport’.
What is clear is that the development of The British Home Championship coincided with the modernisation of football. Moving from a pastime, to the monetised, commercial entity we recognise today.
One of the early stars that graced the tournament was Wales’ Billy Meredith. Meredith was a man ahead of his time, organising the meeting of the first player’s union and passionately opposing the maximum wage.
The crowd favourite revolutionised wing play, as he was able to sway in between his markers, crossing the ball accurately into the box, for the salivating centre forwards to dispatch into the net. Meredith’s trademark was a toothpick, dangling from his mouth as he played. He balanced disdain for the opposition with an inherent cool factor.
The Manchester United star scored 9 goals across the tournament, but what’s most remarkable is his length of service in the red shirt of Wales. Having been part of Wales’ 1907 championship winning side, a 45 year old Meredith played in Wales 2-1 defeat of England at Highbury to claim the 1920 title. Unsurprisingly, no other man has worn the dragon on their chest at such an advanced age since.
The juggernaut of football ground to a halt twice during the 20th century, taking two sabbaticals of 5 years and 6 years respectively, as war raged across the world. In the post-war era, natural order was restored with either England or Scotland lifting the Home Championship trophy outright on the majority of occasions. The 1966 tournament was particularly thrilling. With the imminent World Cup on English soil, England sought to establish themselves as the dominant force on the British Isles. What damage would it have done to their confidence, with a World Cup on the horizon, had they been defeated by teams not good enough to qualify for the tournament itself? Despite a drab 0-0 draw with Wales in Cardiff, England defeated Northern Ireland in Wembley before defeating Scotland 4-3 in front of 123,000 spectators in Glasgow, with future World Cup final
hat trick hero Geoff Hurst netting.
Scotland were able to reverse the result in Wembley a year later, defeating World Champions England 3-2. Bragging rights now resided north of the border, and Scotland were able to declare themselves unofficial World Champions, minus the Jules Rimet trophy.
By the 1970s the troubles in Northern Ireland were beginning to wreak havoc with the organisation of the tournament. As sport does not exist in a vacuum, fixtures were disrupted, moved and abandoned over the next decade.
The 1972 fixture between Northern Ireland and Scotland, scheduled to take place in Windsor Park, Belfast was moved to Glasgow. Tensions were at boiling point, following Derry’s bloody Sunday massacre and Northern Ireland played 3 away games, losing two but defeating England in Wembley.
The tournament would return to Northern Ireland in 1977, and the 1980 competition served as a highpoint for Northern Ireland, claiming only their second outright win. They claimed the title following a narrow 1-0 win in Cardiff. Unfortunately, the euphoria was short lived as disorder would yet again derail the tournament.
Following the death of the provisional IRA’s Bobby Sands in County Down, civil unrest caused the English and Welsh teams to decline invitations to play their games in Belfast. The tournament was cancelled, and in truth, never recovered. By this time, civil unrest, disruption and a nose-dive in attendances meant The British Home Championship was in terminal decline.
The 1984 season would signal an underwhelming end for the tournament. Following a 1-1 draw in Swansea’s Vetch field between Northern Ireland and Wales, England and Scotland played out a 1-1 draw at Hampden Park. All 4 sides finished on 3 points, with Northern Ireland securing the trophy on goal difference. Theirs to keep forever.
The FA, followed by the SFA would soon signal their intent to leave the competition and in 1984 and the tournament was wrapped up exactly a century after its inception.
The tournament now resides in the archives, or in the memories of parents who are able to compare it with rugby union’s sister competition. Occasionally the concept is dusted off. Following England’s disastrous Euro 2008 qualifying campaign, a British championship was mooted, only to be dismissed due to fears of fixture congestion in today’s modern game.
A version of the tournament was resurrected in 2011 as The Nations Cup took place exclusively in Dublin, with the Republic of Ireland replacing England. The hosts won the tournament, defeating Wales in manager Gary Speed’s debut, en route to 3 wins from 3.
So what place, if any, does a British Championship have in 2021? With 3 of the home nations qualifying for Euro 2020, and Wales and England recently gracing the semi-finals of major tournaments, it could be argued that British football is not only in a healthy place, but also a competitive field. However, the irregularity that these sides face one another has added interest to the fixtures. It’s tough to imagine England’s Euro 2016 game vs Wales in Lens, or their Euro 2020 match vs Scotland maintaining such interest were it played
annually.
Perhaps the tournament is best left in the archives, celebrated and remembered as a document of the 20th century history of Britain and Ireland.
