British Home Championship

The British Home Championship (also known as the Home International Championship) was an annual football competition contested between the UK's four national teams, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland (Ireland before 1921-1922), from the 1883-1884 season until the 1983-1984 season.

Overview

By the early 1880s, the development of football in the United Kingdom was gathering pace and the four national football teams of the UK were playing regular friendlies against each other, with nearly every team playing all the others annually. At the time, the football associations of each Home Nation (The Football Association (England), the Scottish Football Association, the Football Association of Wales and the Irish Football Association) had slightly different rules for football, and when matches were played the rules of whoever was the home team were used. While this solution was workable, it was hardly practical. To remedy this, the four associations met in Manchester on December 6th 1882 and agreed on one uniform set of worldwide rules. They also established the International Football Association Board (IFAB) to approve changes to the rules (a task that they still perform to this day).

Related Topics:
1880s - Football in the United Kingdom - Home Nation - The Football Association - Scottish Football Association - Football Association of Wales - Irish Football Association - Manchester - December 6 - 1882 - International Football Association Board

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The new rules meant that formal international competitions could now easily be devised. Thus, at the same meeting, the associations formalised the annual friendlies and the British Home Championship - the world's first international football competition - was born.

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The Championship was held every football season, starting with the 1883-1884 season (the first ever match seeing eventual winners Scotland beat Ireland 5-0 away on January 24th 1884). The dates of the fixtures varied, but they tended to bunch towards the end of the season (sometimes the entire competition was held in a few days at the end of the season). Initially the winner of the competition was seen as the best team in the world, though as football developed globally this tag was dropped. The rise of other international competitions, especially the World Cup and European Championships, meant that the British Home Championship lost a lot of its prestige as the years went on.

Related Topics:
1883 - 1884 - January 24 - World Cup - European Championships

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However, the new international tournaments meant that the Championship took on added importance in certain years. The 1949-1950 and 1953-1954 Championships doubled up as qualifying groups for the 1950 and 1954 World Cups respectively and the results of the 1966-1967 and 1967-1968 Championships were used to determine who went forward to the second qualifying round of Euro '68.

Related Topics:
1949 - 1950 - 1953 - 1954 - 1950 - 1954 - 1966 - 1967 - 1968 - Euro '68

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The British Home Championship was discontinued after the 1983-1984 competition. There were a number of reasons for the demise, including the tournament being overshadowed by the World Cup and European Championships, falling attendances at all but the England v Scotland games, fixture congestion, the rise of hooliganism to epidemic levels, the Troubles in Northern Ireland (civil unrest led to the 1981-1982 competition being abandoned) and England and Scotland's desire to play against 'stronger' teams (the English and then Scottish FAs initiated the end of the competition in 1983 by announcing they would not enter after the 1983-1984 Championship). Ironically, the 'weaker' teams that England and Scotland wanted to stop playing excelled in the final Championship: Northern Ireland won it and Wales finished second. The British Home Championship trophy remains at the Irish Football Association's headquarters in Belfast.

Related Topics:
1983 - 1984 - Hooliganism - The Troubles - Northern Ireland - 1981 - 1982 - Belfast

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The Championship was replaced by the smaller Rous Cup, which involved just England, Scotland and, in later years, an invited guest team from South America. That competition, however, ended after just five years.

Related Topics:
Rous Cup - South America

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In recent years, there have been many proposals to resurrect the British Home Championship, with advocates pointing to rising attendances and a significant downturn in football-related violence. It has been suggested that a reborn Championship could replace the international friendlies played by the UK teams between competitive fixtures, which some view as pointless. Many see the qualifying competition for the World Cup 2006 (in which England, Wales and Northern Ireland have been drawn in the same group) as an important test bed to the viability of restarting the competition.

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