Ernie Copland (14 October 1924 – December 1971) was a Scottish

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who played for

Arbroath Arbroath () or Aberbrothock ( ) is a former royal burgh and the largest town in the Subdivisions of Scotland, council area of Angus, Scotland, Angus, Scotland, with a population of 23,902. It lies on the North Sea coast, some east-northeast of ...

Dundee Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...

and

Raith Rovers Raith Rovers Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in the town of Kirkcaldy, Fife. The club was founded in 1883 and currently competes in the as a member of the Scottish Professional Football League. The club has won f ...

. He was selected for

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

1954 FIFA World Cup The 1954 FIFA World Cup was the 5th edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football tournament for senior men's national teams of the nations affiliated to FIFA. It was held in Switzerland from 16 June ...

squad, but did not travel to the finals and never actually played for the national side. Although selected for the 22-man squad for the

, the

Scottish Football Association The Scottish Football Association (; also known as the Scottish FA and the SFA) is the governing body of football in Scotland and has the ultimate responsibility for the control and development of football in Scotland. Members of the SFA incl ...

only budgeted to take 13 players (including only one

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

) to the finals in Switzerland.UNLUCKY 13 FOR SCOTS
''

Evening Telegraph ''Evening Telegraph'' is a common newspaper name, and may refer to: * ''Evening Telegraph'' (Dundee), Scotland * ''Evening Telegraph'' (Dublin), Ireland, published 1871–1924. * ''Coventry Evening Telegraph'', England, now the ''Coventry Telegr ...

'', 29 December 2004. Copland was one of the players who stayed at home on reserve, with the likes of

Bobby Combe James Robert Combe (29 January 1924 – 19 January 1991) was a Scottish footballer, who played for Hibernian and was player/manager of Dumbarton for one season. He also represented Scotland and the Scottish Football League XI. A schoolboy inter ...

and

Jimmy Binning James Binning (21 December 1922 – 1991) was a Scottish footballer who played for Arbroath and Dumfries side Queen of the South. Career From the season 1948–1949 until his departure, Binning scored six goals in his 84 league games for Arbro ...

. Copland was chosen as reserve in the Scottish team for the World Cup qualifiers in 1957, and travelled to

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

(Switzerland),

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...

(Germany), and

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

(Spain), but did not play. Copland died

Elizabeth, South Australia Elizabeth is an outer northern suburb of the Adelaide metropolitan area, South Australia, 24 km north of the Adelaide city centre. It is located in the City of Playford. At the 2021 census, Elizabeth had a population of 40,343. Establi ...

in December 1971, at the age of 47.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Copland, Ernie 1924 births 1971 deaths Scottish men's footballers Scottish Junior Football Association players Scottish Football League players Arbroath F.C. players Dundee F.C. players Raith Rovers F.C. players 1954 FIFA World Cup players Men's association football forwards Footballers from Montrose, Angus 20th-century Scottish sportsmen