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The Rous Cup was a short-lived
football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
competition hosted in the second half of the 1980s, contested between
England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
,
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 ...
and, in later years, a guest team from South America. It was named after Sir Stanley Rous, an English football administrator.


Overview

The Rous Cup arose from the ashes of the
British Home Championship The British Home Championship (historically known as the British International Championship or simply the International Championship) was an annual football competition contested between the United Kingdom's four national teams: England, Scotlan ...
, which had been discontinued in
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. Initially, the competition (which was named after Sir Stanley Rous, a former secretary of
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and president of
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) was merely a replacement for the annual England v Scotland match that had been lost due to the end of the British Home Championship. Thus, the competition consisted of just one game between England and Scotland (with home advantage alternating annually) with the winner claiming the Cup (a format identical to the
Calcutta Cup The Calcutta Cup is the trophy awarded to the winner of the rugby match between teams of England and Scotland played annually in the Six Nations Championship. Like the match itself (England–Scotland), the Calcutta Cup is the oldest trophy con ...
in
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). After two years under this format, it was decided to invite a different South American team to compete each year to create more excitement and to fulfil England and Scotland's desire to regularly play stronger teams, which had been one of their reasons for leaving the British Home Championship in the first place. As there were now three teams competing, a league system, just like the one used in the British Home Championship, was introduced. Each team would play the other two once, receiving two points for a win, one for a draw and none for a loss, with
goal difference Goal difference, goal differential or points difference is a form of tiebreaker used to rank sport teams which finish on equal points in a league competition. Either "goal difference" or "points difference" is used, depending on whether matches ar ...
being used to differentiate between teams level on points. England and Scotland continued to play each other home and away in alternating years, but the guest South American team would play both their games away. Though large numbers of travelling Scots to London had been a feature of England-Scotland games for many years, travelling English support to Glasgow was negligible in comparison until 1987 when minor scuffles broke out on the
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terracing. In 1989, major disturbances across Glasgow were reported as significant numbers of English hooligans appeared at this fixture for the first time. With English club sides banned from European football at the time, the FA were anxious not to see the national side banned too and the Scotland-England match was a high-profile game that brought interest from across the world. This was a major factor in the demise of the fixture. The cup was discontinued, after five years, in 1989. The annual England vs Scotland fixture was also abandoned at this point. For many years since then, the oldest rivalry in world football was only renewed when the two nations were drawn together in the
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group stage and in a two-match qualification play-off for
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. In the 21st century, the teams have only played each other in three friendly matches (August 2013, November 2014, and September 2023), in two 2018 World Cup qualifying group matches, and in the group stage of the UEFA Euro 2020 finals tournament. In 1986, the England vs Scotland match was played in April, restoring it to the time of the year when it had generally been played in the post-war years before the Home Internationals were concentrated in May from 1969. In every other year, the Rous Cup was played in May. This usually fell just after the domestic seasons in each country had finished. In 1989, it coincided with the end of the English domestic season, which had been extended after fixtures were postponed following the
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.


Results

;Notes


All-time table

:''Note: Two points for win, one for a draw''


Records

*Most appearances:
Chris Waddle Christopher Roland Waddle (born 14 December 1960) is an English former professional football player and manager. He had a spell as Burnley manager during the 1997–98 season, but has not returned to coaching since. Largely since retiring he h ...
, Roy Aitken and
Alex McLeish Alexander McLeish (born 21 January 1959) is a Scottish professional football manager and former player. He played as a defender for Aberdeen during their 1980s glory years, making nearly 500 League appearances for the club, and won 77 caps f ...
(8 appearances) *Most goals:
Gary Lineker Gary Winston Lineker ( ; born 30 November 1960) is an English Sports broadcasting, sports broadcaster and former professional Association football, footballer who played as a Striker (association football), striker. Lineker is the only player t ...
(2 goals) *Highest attendance: 92,000 (England vs Brazil, 1987) *Lowest attendance: 9,006 (Scotland vs Chile, 1989)


References

{{British Home Championship Defunct international association football competitions in Europe Recurring sporting events established in 1985 Recurring events disestablished in 1989 England–Scotland football rivalry 1985 establishments in the United Kingdom International men's association football invitational tournaments