Scotland

If England codified football, Scotland taught it how to play. It was in Glasgow, in 1872, that the first international match in history took place, a 0-0 draw between Scotland and England, and it was the Scots of Queen's Park who replaced individual force with the short passing combination game that the Scotch Professors exported to the world, the origin of all modern football. The Scottish FA is the second oldest on the planet, the league has run since 1890, and Hampden Park was for decades the largest stadium in the world. It is a small country with an outsized football culture: Glasgow's Old Firm, the Tartan Army following the national team with unshakeable faith, and the strange curse of never having survived a World Cup group stage despite so many appearances. Scottish football is all of it at once: birthplace, school and passion.