FIFA World Cup is coming home, but where is that?

WILLIAM RALSTON

An illustration of the first international football match hosted by Scotland against England in 1872.

England hasn’t taken a major trophy since capturing the FIFA World Cup when they hosted in 1966. 

They’ve come close, finishing second in the last two UEFA European Championships, to Spain in 2024 and Italy in the 2020 Euros. That didn’t stop the cadre of English fans among the 75,000 in Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium for their country’s 2-1 win on Wednesday against Democratic Republic of Congo from singing “It’s coming home.” 

DR Congo, which opened its World Cup with a surprising 1-1 draw against Portugal. After a 1-0 loss to Colombia, the Leopards overwhelmed Uzbekistan 3-1 to make the Round of 32.

DR Congo is one of the nine African teams, along with Algeria, Cape Verde, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Ghana, Morocco, South Africa, and Senegal, to advance to the knockout rounds in the expanded 48-team tournament. Previously, no more than two teams from the continent made that leap in any World Cup. Only Tunisia was eliminated in group play. Morocco already moved on to the Round of 16, upsetting the Netherlands on penalty kicks on Monday, while Côte d’Ivoire lost to Norway 2-1 on Tuesday.

So where is home?

The whole “It’s coming home” thing dates back three decades to 1996 when “Three Lions,” a song by the English comedians David Baddiel and Frank Skinner along with the rock band The Lightning Seeds, was released to mark England hosting that year’s UEFA European Championship. It has been in the zeitgeist ever since, but the attitude of ownership of the game was born more than a century and a half ago. 
The modern game of association football, from which the slang term soccer was created by British schoolboys, was standardized in England during the mid-19th century when clubs sought to unify football rules played in schools and towns.

That culminated in the formation of the Football Association in London in 1863, which issued the first official Laws of the Game. Ebenezer Cobb Morley, an English solicitor, drafted the rules, which banned practices like overt hacking and handling the ball by outfield players. 

When asked who invented the game now being celebrated in the 23rd edition of the FIFA World Cup, Kenny Millar, the director of communications for the Scottish Football Association gave a look one gets when they’ve asked a stupid question. Millar and his deputy, Angus Macgregor, who were in Charlotte as Scotland made Charlotte FC’s training center their base camp for the World Cup, referred a reporter to the Scottish Football Museum.

Football historian Richard McBrearty cited the earliest record of the game dates to 1424 in an official document from King James I: “...it is decreed and the king forbids that any man play at the football.…” A subsequent decree provided insight as the Scottish monarch said archery should be practiced instead. With English invasion a constant threat in the 15th century, the distraction of football was a hindrance to military preparation. 

Asked if there was evidence that the game had deeper roots in Scotland than it did it England, McBrearty replied: “It isn't really possible to make a factual comparison with respect to football activity in either country during such an early period. All I can state is that four separate acts from four separate monarchs (James II, III, and IV as well) suggests that the game was long established and very popular in Scotland across the 15th century. The 2nd Act of Parliament in 1457 actually banned golf as well as football. This is the earliest surviving reference to golf in Scotland.”

And we all know how that golf thing worked out.

According to the Scottish Football Museum website, there is evidence that Mary, Queen of Scots, was an early football supporter. 

“After losing the Battle of Langside in 1568, Mary fled over the border and was initially held at Carlisle Castle. A letter describing her time at the castle mentions her leaving the castle to visit a playing green…  where 20 of her retinue played at football before her for 2 hours, very strongly, nimbly, and skilfully (sic), without foul play, the smallness of their ball occasioning their fairer play…”

In truth, the competitive concept of kicking an object, be it a rock, the skull of a vanquished enemy, or stuffed animal bladder, can be traced back thousands of years to disparate cultures around the globe.

While the English can be credited with establishing soccer bureaucracy, both countries became exceptional exporters of the game, bringing it with them as immigrants to the United States in the late 1800s and afterwards. Before the beautiful game was played in Brazil, it was already established in New Jersey. 

And after England took another step towards bringing it home, the former colonies that became the United States will work to claim their stake in the Round of 16 against Bosnia and Herzegovina. 
Scotland has already returned home, its record of frustration in the World Cup intact. England’s expedition to bring the Cup home continues.

Inherently the same, the game is also inherently different, with local flavor and character added into the mix we have seen both on the pitch, in the stadium seats, and marching through the streets to tournament venues.

The reality, however, is that the beautiful game has many homes. If home is where the heart is, then everywhere is a motherland to soccer/football/futbol/fussball/calcio/etc. 
 

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