27 years of pain and shame, why has Scotland never participated in the World Cup since 1998?

Craig Brown is the last head coach to lead Scotland to the World Cup finals circle

Scottish men's football team has not entered the World Cup finals circle for twenty-seven years.

The last time they participated in the World Cup was the summer of France in 1998, with two weeks of romance and anxiety intertwined. Led by head coach Craig Brown, they lost to Brazil in the first game, tied with Norway in the second game, and were humiliated by Morocco in the last game, and as always, they failed in the group stage.

That was the eighth time Scotland participated in the World Cup and the last time. They have been in a bad situation since, their reputation has been severely damaged, and for a whole generation they have been immersed in isolation from international football.

The pain lasted for so long, who should I blame? Do they dare to have dreams again?

27 years of pain and shame

Scotland has never participated in the World Cup again since the late 1990s, and some people may find it really embarrassing.

Is this really the case?

Since 1998, a total of 61 countries and regions have advanced to the World Cup finals, of which 25 belong to UEFA.

Looking around, Wales and Ireland each advanced once, and Iceland, Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Czech Republic also entered the World Cup finals.

Slovenia even qualified twice, Sweden three times. They are not considered traditional football teams.

Over the years, has Scotland never had hope of qualifying?

Yes, no.

Since 1998, every European team that scored in the World Cup was ranked higher than Scotland at that time. In other words, if Scotland eventually advances, they will be the lowest-ranked team in any event.

In 2002, Scotland ranked 50th in the world. If they qualify to enter Japan and South Korea, they will be the lowest-ranked team among the top 32 (don't doubt that the Chinese team was in the top 50 at that time. After three consecutive defeats in the World Cup, the ranking of the Chinese team dropped to 51st in July 2002).

What does this data mean? Well, Scotland is not expected to advance to the World Cup, and it hasn't been for a while, and it's not just the pessimism inside the Scots.

One might say that if Scots scored into a World Cup, such as the 2002 World Cup, their rankings would rise by winning additional points.

But this is only the category of "if", "but" and "maybe". Given the achievements of Scotland over the past 27 years, they are not worthy of advancing.

Has Scotland failed the young genius?

Steve Clark took over as Scotland's head coach in 2019 and vowed to lead Scotland back to the World Series. He has made it twice, but both are in the European Cup.

Although this is by no means easy, Scotland's two European Cup trips were not very pleasant. They never really hit their opponents anyway, and both times they were eliminated early in the group stage.

Under the leadership of Clark, the team continues to develop. Over the past year, with the addition of young players, the team's focus has begun to shift to the future. However, although the phenomenon of "oversupply" of talented players has begun to appear, where have young talented players of all ages gone?

The Scottish Football Association has seven youth training schools, which are from a program launched in 2012 that aims to give Scotland’s best young football talents a room to learn, grow and develop.

In the Scotland team that participated in the European Cup in Germany last summer, Billy Gilmore was the only graduate of the Scottish Football Association youth training school, who attended Grange College in Kilmarnock.

In addition to the Scottish Football Association, some Scottish clubs have also established partnerships with the school, including the Celtics, Dundee, Dundee United, Harts and Glasgow Rangers.

For example, the Celtics' collaboration with St. Ninian School in Kogintiloch has produced outstanding players such as Kieran Tierney, Anthony Rollston, Aaron Hickey, Jack Hendry and Ben Dock.

Considering that the Scottish Football Association's plan is currently in a critical stage, the first batch of players are all in their 20s, the number of such talents is not amazing. Among Clark's current lineup, only Gilmore and Max Johnston are the top graduates of Scottish Football Association's youth training school.

Can Scotland qualify for the 2026 World Cup?

Everything is possible, even though there has been a lot of evidence for how difficult it is in the past 27 years.

The international careers of many Scottish star players are fleeting and have never had the chance to participate in the World Cup. James McFarden, Barry Ferguson, Darren Fletcher, Kenny Miller, David Weir, Scott Brown, Callum McGregor... They are all outstanding players, some of whom are talented but cannot achieve their goal of entering the World Cup.

None of these people have the experience of completing tasks except McGregor. Clark's team knows how to advance to the finals of the competition. After all, during his coaching period, they have succeeded twice. It is undoubtedly Clark's biggest wish at the moment to complete the "three-strike" and enter the World Cup.

Although the media may have written words like "Two Euro Cups" in the headline, Scotland has also experienced some very difficult moments in the past few years.

In six matches in two European Cups, they never showed a chance of winning in any of them, only they were slightly better in statistics against Switzerland last summer.

Early tomorrow morning, they will start their journey to the 2026 World Cup qualifiers. Their first game will challenge the Nordic powerhouse Denmark team away. Before the game, the alarm bell rang on their heads..

After a heroic victory over Spain and Norway in the opening stage of the 2024 European Cup qualifiers, Scotland won only one game in 16 games, against Gibraltar.

Thankfully, they have only lost two of the last seven games, and this wave of losing streak has temporarily stopped the decline. But the team's ups and downs in form will make fans gathered in Copenhagen uneasy.

No matter who Clark chooses to start, it will take a huge effort to defeat Denmark.

Of course, victory is not out of reach. The team had beaten Norway in Oslo, easily beat Spain in Hampton, and also won in Poland. They may be able to do the same in Denmark, after all, Clark has many talented players.

For example, McTominay, who was nominated for the Golden Globe candidate, Bologna captain Lewis Ferguson, and Champions League champion and Scotland captain Andy Robertson are all in the team. Key players such as Robertson and John McKin, who plays for Aston Villa, may see this as their last chance to get to the top stage.

This is an experienced and enthusiastic team, and now young players such as Gannon Dock, Johnston, Udinese's Lennon Miller and Hibernian star Keelon Bowie have been injected with energy.

Early tomorrow morning in Copenhagen, Scotland has the opportunity to set an important milestone for the future.