1972 British Home Championship

The 1972 British Home Championship was the first such Home Nations football tournament (although not the last), to suffer during The Troubles in Northern Ireland, when death threats from the Provisional Irish Republican Army were sent to the Scottish Football Association and Scottish players who were scheduled to play at Windsor Park. The surge in anti-British feeling which prompted these threats followed Bloody Sunday in January, and also resulted in the cancellation of the rugby union 1972 Five Nations Championship. As a result, Northern Ireland's home fixture was rescheduled to Hampden Park, effectively granting the Scottish team an extra home match. This was not the last time that The Troubles would interfere with the Home Championship; the 1981 British Home Championship would have to be abandoned following similar heightened tension after the death of Bobby Sands.

Scotland used their home advantage well, securing victory over the Irish and Welsh to take a major points advantage into the final match against England, who had lost at home to Northern Ireland following a heavy defeat of Wales. In the last match however, England gained a slight advantage over their old rivals, winning 1-0 and thus equalling the tournament on points and resulting in a shared victory (goal difference was not at this stage used to differentiate between teams). The Welsh salvaged a point in their final home game to Northern Ireland, but still finished bottom of the table.

Table

The points system worked as follows:
* 2 points for a win
* 1 point for a draw

Results

footballbox
date = May 20, 1972
team1 = fb-rt|Wales
score = 0–3
team2 = fb|England
goals1 =
goals2 = Emlyn Hughes, Rodney Marsh, Colin Bell
stadium = Ninian Park, Cardiff----footballbox
date = May 20, 1972
team1 = fb-rt|Scotland
score = 2–0
team2 = fb|Northern Ireland
goals1 = Denis Law, Peter Lorimer
goals2 =
stadium = Hampden Park, Glasgow----footballbox
date = May 23, 1972
team1 = fb-rt|England
score = 0–1
team2 = fb|Northern Ireland
goals1 =
goals2 = Terry Neill
stadium = Wembley Stadium, London----footballbox
date = May 24, 1972
team1 = fb-rt|Scotland
score = 1–0
team2 = fb|Wales
goals1 = Peter Lorimer
goals2 =
stadium = Hampden Park, Glasgow----footballbox
date = May 27, 1972
team1 = fb-rt|Wales
score = 0–0
team2 = fb|Northern Ireland
goals1 =
goals2 =
stadium = Racecourse Ground, Wrexham----footballbox
date = May 27, 1972
team1 = fb-rt|Scotland
score = 0–1
team2 = fb|England
goals1 =
goals2 = Alan Ball
stadium = Hampden Park, Glasgow

References

*cite book
author= Guy Oliver| title=The Guinness Record of World Soccer
date=1992
publisher=Guinness
id=ISBN 0-851129-54-4