It's time for the return of the British Home Championship

It’s the deciding match of the British Home Championship in 1977. Scotland have just defeated England at Wembley to take the title. Fans have just invaded the pitch and is remembered in Scottish sporting legend. For my dad who grew up in Manchester in the 70s and 80s, football was, and still is, central to his life. The broken goal post caused ecstatic fans who mounted them forever lives in his memory. Those moments still impassion the loud “Get in!” I hear reverberate through the house when Man United or England score. The British Home Championship embodied everything that is great about football: passion, physicality, and competition.

But for my generation, the legendary invasion is a long-forgotten myth. Sipping on a pint down the local, I watch on at the emotional outpouring from viewers when one of the home nations encounters one another on the field. But it’s the Six Nations that generate this outpouring of national pride regularly every year. 

Nowadays in football, the sides of England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales only have a slim chance of encountering one another in international tournaments. 

If Six Nations viewing figures are anything to go by, there’s a demand for matches between the home nations. In 2021, the England vs Scotland fixture at Twickenham raked in a total viewing of 8.7million on ITV. This year, the figures were just short of that reaching 8.4million. Translate this demand over to football, which already attracts viewers in their millions, and the possibilities could be immense. 

During the World Cup held in Qatar last year, over 17million people tuned in to watch England beat Wales 3-0. Back in 2020, 20million watched England vs Scotland during the Euros when only 22,500 fans were allowed to watch the game live at Wembley as a result of Covid-19 restrictions. 

Bringing back the British Home Championship would revitalise competition between the home nations. It would also satisfy the growing appetite of the increasing demand for more football which has never been so tremendous. 

The British Home Championship saw its last final being played in the season of 1983–4. The looming ‘Troubles’ in Northern Ireland meant that many teams were unwilling to travel to Belfast in 1981, the year the tournament’s end was nearing. Failing match-day attendance following the ongoing political issues in the 80s saw the English FA withdrawing from the competition. The Scottish FA quickly followed suit. Both said that they’d never partake in the tournament again. 

Some things haven’t changed since the 1980s. Political tensions still obviously exist within the game. We don’t need to look very far to see the sectarianism that characterises the age-old rivalry between Celtic and Rangers. But these age-old rivalries between the nations contribute to their ever-increasing popularity for fans. 

Match-day attendance in the Scottish Premier League is at an all-time high; the SPL saw an average attendance of over 100,000 people this season. Scotland now enjoy the best gates per capita in Europe. Aggregate attendance in the English Premier League is also high. Domestic match-day attendance offers an insight to the conversion of the huge numbers that would be watching national games encompassed within the British Home Championship. During the World Cup held in Qatar, fans demonstrated their willingness to travel thousands of miles to watch their teams. Travelling a few hundred miles to watch a game or watching from their screens would feel like a breeze in comparison. This time around, the fear of a lack of fans to attend a re-introduced Home Championship is non-existent. 

Since the cancellation of regular friendlies that began back in 1883 due to the establishment of the Home Championship, national teams don’t have the same opportunities to regularly practice against other sides of the same calibre. The re-introduction of the tournament would strengthen the national football teams of the home nations: players would get to play against the best this country has to offer. 

The potential financial benefits should not be ignored. National teams would have more merchandise to design and sell for the tournament, a different hospitality package to offer to customers on top of those already offered, and, finally, more money generated through broadcast contracts and advertising. Not to mention, it would benefit the game itself. 

Broadcasting rights would generate millions of pounds for each individual football association which could then be used to strengthen domestic football. Hypothetically, if the individual associations reinvested some of the profits from the broadcasting rights back into the lower divisions of domestic football, it could make those leagues more of a competition. Whilst the domineering prowess of a club like Celtic who have swept up their fifth treble this century is to be commended, wouldn’t the SPL be more interesting for fans if there was more competition for the top spot? And one of the reasons Celtic can’t be touched by any other Scottish club at the moment is because of how they’re financed. 

If the tournament was to be re-introduced, it would require serious reform. The original format of the British Home Championship awarded two points, not three, for a win. If at the end of the competition two teams held the same number of points at the top of the table, they had to share the title of Championship ‘winner’. Goal difference did not act as the decider. The points system would require updating in accordance with modern football so this woeful idea of sharing a Championship title is axed from the get-go. No one wants to share the glory of winning with another team. Doesn’t that defeat the entire point of a competition if there’s two winners? You might tell your children to share but that wouldn’t go down so well with football players and their fans. 

Initial scheduling of the British Home Championship meant that the games were crammed at the end of the season. Instead of tagging-on games, fixtures should occur on a bi-annual basis in accordance with the international calendar. Since no UK football team is sent to the Olympics as the four nations have their own individual associations and teams, the re-introduction of a British Home Championship would provide apt practice for the national sides in preparation for the Euros and World Cup. More fixtures would also benefit squad rotation and give developing players a chance to compete on the national stage. 

The demands for more football by fans has never been greater. Some things are better left in the past, but not the possibilities of making iconic football history. There’s no better time to re-introduce the British Home Championship than 40 years since it was last played. 

Give the fans what they want – more football.