Hansard

It is, of course, a genuine pleasure to open the debate. As a long-suffering Hibs fan, I want to say right at the start that if anyone had told me that one day I would be standing here celebrating a Scotland team that had qualified for the world cup thanks, in part, to a goal scored by Lawrence Shankland, given the team that he plays for, I would have said that they had spent too much time in the famous five stand hospitality—which is exactly what I did last Saturday.

However, football is full of surprises—and what a fantastic surprise this qualification has been for the whole country. It has given everybody a huge lift, and it will do so, I believe, all the way through to the group stages and beyond next year. For the first time in 28 years, Scotland is going to a FIFA world cup—and what a way for us to get there, with a 4-2 win over Denmark at Hampden. It was a match full of grit, flair and just enough nail-biting, buttock-clenching tension to confirm that—yes, once again—it was Scotland trying to qualify for a world cup.

I remember previous world cups; most of us will have our own memories of them. The first one that I remember was 1970, but the first one that Scotland qualified for was 1974, when Scotland went out without losing a match—the only team ever to have done so at that point.

For the 1978 world cup, I actually had a favourite manager in Ally MacLeod. It is not a popular view, but I think that having somebody who was very confident—perhaps overconfident—and positive about Scotland was a refreshing change from some of our previous managers.

In 1982, I did not see any of the world cup matches, as I was in the Falklands. I possessed a high-frequency radio, so many people came to me to find out what the scores were, but I never saw any of the matches until many months later.

However, I go back to that most recent match, with Scott McTominay opening the scoring very shortly after the start, and, to finish the job, the stoppage-time strikes from Kieran Tierney—I still think that that was the best of all the goals scored on that night; there were three fantastic goals to pick from—and from Kenny McLean, scoring from his own half, which sent Hampden into joyful mayhem.

The tartan army are the most passionate, positive and musical—and occasionally sunburnt—supporters on earth. From Mount Florida to Munich, they carry Scotland and our hopes with them. At the Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee last week, we heard about the good job that they did for Scotland and its international reputation at last year’s European championships. We fully expect that they will do the same for us in north America next year.

As we celebrate this achievement, however, it is worth remembering that Scotland’s football story did not begin in 1872, or even in 1978 with Archie Gemmill’s hip-swivelling heroics. Our footballing heritage stretches back over almost five centuries. Just a few miles from my constituency sits Stirling castle, where, in 1981, workers repairing the Queen’s chamber found a small leather ball stuffed with a pig’s bladder wedged high in the rafters; it had been there since the 1540s. Today, it is recognised as the world’s oldest surviving football and is proudly displayed at the Stirling Smith Art Gallery and Museum.

In 2006, that same Stirling football went to the FIFA world cup, even though Scotland did not. It was there not to be kicked about, thankfully, but as part of a special exhibition in Germany celebrating the origins of the global game. Even before our modern national team made its return to the biggest stage, a wee leather ball from Stirling castle had already flown the flag for Scotland at a world cup. Would it not be fitting if, at the next world cup, the oldest football in the world was once again piped on at the opening ceremony of the north American games?

It also speaks to something bigger: that Scotland has not just played, but shaped, football. Indeed, in my view, Scotland invented football. When the modern game began to spread around the world, it was often Scots who carried it. The so-called “Scotch professors”—players and coaches who travelled across Britain, Europe and south America in the late 19th century—taught the passing, team-based style that became the foundation of modern football.

One of them, Thomas Donohoe, even has a statue in Brazil to recognise his role in establishing the game there. It is quite something that, in the land of Pelé, they built a monument to a lad from Busby, and it is proof that Scotland’s influence on world football has been lasting, global and profound. I think that it is true to say that Pelé once said that Scotland invented football and Brazil perfected it.

It is a remarkable thing to stand in front of a ball that tells us that football in Scotland is not just a sport, but a thread woven through royalty and ordinary folk alike, through centuries of community life, long before offsides and the video assistant referee—VAR—and long before anyone shouted, “He’s no offside, referee—get your eyes checked” and all the stuff that we say these days. Somebody in Stirling castle leathered a ball that high to get it stuck on the roof. Perhaps it was miskicked by a courtier in an early attempt to avoid taking responsibility for a wayward pass. Nevertheless, it is hugely important that that ball—the oldest football in the world—was found in Scotland.

Just as it did with golf, Scotland gave the world the game of football. Ged O’Brien, the football professor, has referred to football being played in the 1500s in Scotland; indeed, there is reference to a game of football and attempts by landowners to stop the game being played.

So, when Andy Robertson goes up to lift the world cup, football will be truly “coming home”, as I think they call it. The humble leather ball connects the courtyard of Stirling castle to Hampden park and now to stadiums across north America.

Speaking of history, I should point out that Dunblane, in my constituency, has its own special place in Scotland’s world cup folklore. In 1978, the national team, before heading to Argentina, stayed at the Dunblane Hydro hotel—and who joined them? It was Rod Stewart, who recorded the world cup single “Ole Ola” with the squad. It was, in many ways, the most Scottish thing imaginable: a glamorous superstar, a hopeful squad and a song that still echoes through karaoke machines to this day—though never quite in tune.

I remind members who might not be aware—because I bought it, and I still have it as a 45 single—that one of the lines is, “Ole ola”—