One team in Tallinn

One team in Tallinn

Event	1998 FIFA World Cup qualification
Estonia Scotland - -
Abandoned after 3 seconds, due to Estonian team boycott.
Date	October 9, 1996 (1996-10-09)
Venue	Kadrioru Stadium, Tallinn
Referee	Miroslav Radoman (Yugoslavia)
Attendance	1,000

One team in Tallinn refers to a football match scheduled for 9 October 1996 in World Cup qualifying European Group 4 between the national teams of Estonia and Scotland, which became very notable for the unusual circumstances whereby it was abandoned after 3 seconds, with the Estonian team absent from Tallinn's Kadrioru Stadium.

Background

Estonia and Scotland were drawn in group 4 along with Austria, Belarus, Latvia and Sweden. Both nations failed to get their campaign off to a winning start in August, Estonia losing 1–0 away to Belarus and Scotland drawing 0–0 away to Austria. On 5 October however, both won their games to leave just one point between the teams heading into the Tallinn meeting.

Pre-match controversy

Scotland trained at the Kadrioru stadium the night before the game, where they found the temporary floodlighting the game was to be played under inadequate and drew this to the attention of the officials. FIFA officials agreed with the Scottish delegation, and on the morning of the game the 1845 EET kickoff time was rescheduled to 1500 EET. The Estonian delegation, unhappy with the logistical consequences of the switch, did not travel to the stadium. Scotland, unsure of the situation, prepared as normal (manager Craig Brown later said he had it in mind that the likeliest occurrence was for the Estonian team to show up late, to protest the decision, but for the game to go ahead anyway.)

Kickoff and abandonment

Referee Miroslav Radoman led the Scots out onto the pitch, with Scotland's Tartan Army supporters taking the unusual situation in good humour with the chant "One team in Tallinn, There's only one team in Tallinn". Billy Dodds kicked the game off and captain John Collins took one touch of the ball before Radoman blew the whistle and abandoned the game.

Scotland line-up: Goram, McNamara, Boyd, Calderwood, McKinlay, Burley, Lambert, Collins (c), McGinlay, Dodds, Jackson

Aftermath

Scotland initially believed that under tournament regulations they would be awarded the match by a default score of 3–0, but FIFA met on 7 November and ordered a replay on a neutral ground. The replay was played on 11 February 1997, and ended in a 0–0 draw at the Stade Louis II in Monaco.

Scotland finished second in Group 4 behind Austria. Their 23 points meant they were the highest-placed runner-up in the European qualifying groups, meaning they qualified automatically and avoided the play-offs. Estonia finished 5th and did not qualify for the World Cup finals.

See also

• Estonia national football team 1996
• Estonia national football team 1997

Sources

• Ward, Andrew (2000). Football's Strangest Matches. Robson Books. 
• "Estonia v Scotland report". http://www.t-army.com/rep_est1.html. Retrieved 2008-09-20. 
• "Where'd they go, where'd they go…". The Scotsman. 2002-11-19. http://sport.scotsman.com/tengreatfootballmatches/Whered-they-go-whered-they.2379217.jp. Retrieved 2008-09-20.