England set to face Scots in 2010 as oldest rivalry is revived

The England-Scotland international could return to the calendar in 2010. Officials at the English FA and their Scottish counterparts in Glasgow are keen to revive the match, the oldest in the game, which was first played in Glasgow in 1872.

The two FAs have been discussing the rebirth of the fixture for several years and the Scottish FA's chief executive, Gordon Smith, said yesterday that he had had talks with his FA counterpart Brian Barwick.

"We've had discussions about resurrecting the games and it's definitely back on," Smith said. "It might be 2010 before we get a game. The idea would be to establish some sort of relationship for one-off games or even have them bi-annually."

Adrian Bevington, the English FA's director of communications, added: "There is certainly a desire on our part to find a suitable date to arrange a fixture with Scotland in the future. We were ready to host Scotland next month but unfortunately they were unable to take up that fixture."

England and Scotland met 110 times between 1872 and 1999. England won 45 matches and Scotland 41, with 24 matches drawn.

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