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The Scotland national football team represents Scotland in international football and is controlled by the Scottish Football Association. Scotland are the joint oldest national football team in the world, alongside England, whom they played in the world's first international football match in 1872. Scotland maintains its own national side that competes in all major professional tournaments with the exception of the Olympic Games, as Scotland is not a member of the International Olympic Committee. The majority of Scotland's home matches are held at the national stadium, Hampden Park, with friendly matches sometimes hosted at club stadiums. Scotland have qualified for the FIFA World Cup and the UEFA European Football Championship several times, but have never progressed beyond the first group stage of a finals tournament. The team have achieved some noteworthy results, however, such as beating the 1966 FIFA World Cup winners England 3 � 2 at Wembley Stadium in 1967. Archie Gemmill scored what has been described as one of the greatest World Cup goals ever in a 3 � 2 win during the 1978 World Cup against the Netherlands, who reached the final of the tournament. In their qualifying group for UEFA Euro 2008, Scotland defeated 2006 World Cup runners-up France 1 � 0 in both fixtures. Scotland have been World Football Elo Ratings leaders for the longest continuous period of all nations, 5845 days from 4 March 1876 to 5 March 1892. Scotland's supporters are collectively known as the Tartan Army. Scotland's traditional rival is England, whom they played annually from 1872 until 1989, but there have only been three senior level fixtures since then. The last match between the sides was the second leg of a Euro 2000 qualifying play-off at Wembley Stadium in 1999, which Scotland won 1 � 0, although England won the tie 2 � 1 on aggregate. |
