Since the inception of the European Cup in 1955, there have been many meetings in UEFA club competitions between football teams from each part of the United Kingdom – England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
[1][2][3][4] There has never been a European final between an English and a Scottish club, and two Scottish clubs have never faced off in European tournaments at any stage; the closest this came to occurring was in the 1965–66 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup when Heart of Midlothian lost a playoff to Zaragoza with Dunfermline already drawn to meet the winners in the next round,[5] and in the same competition two years later when, knowing Dundee would be the next opponent, Rangers were eliminated by eventual winners Leeds United.
[11] Despite the high number of wins by English clubs in the relevant competitions, there had never been an all-English or all-British UEFA Super Cup match (by contrast there were four all-Spanish and two all-Italian meetings in the event) until 2019, when it became a certainty due to the presence of four finalists.
There was only one all-English tie under the old knockout format among four British ties overall; this was in 1978 when the two-time holders Liverpool[16] were beaten in the opening round by Nottingham Forest, who had qualified for the competition for the first time and went on to win the trophy;[17] they retained it the following year,[18] before Liverpool won again in 1981 (beating Scottish title holders Aberdeen en route).
[4] Roddy Forsyth, writing in The Daily Telegraph, commented that the growing financial disparity between the two leagues was reflected in the below capacity attendance, the defensive tactics used by Rangers, and the weakened team selection by United.
The most recent competitive meeting of clubs from England and Scotland was between Celtic and Manchester City in the 2016–17 UEFA Champions League.
[14] Heart of Midlothian suffered a record defeat against Tottenham Hotspur in the 2011–12 UEFA Europa League,[33] but performed more creditably against Liverpool in 2012–13.
[36] The first all-English final in the Europa League era, and only the third contest between two English clubs in the competition's history, took place in 2019, when Chelsea defeated London rivals Arsenal in Baku;[9] based 6 miles (9.7 km) apart, the clubs' supporters had to travel almost 2,500 miles (4,000 km) each way to the event on the other side of the continent.
[39] A similar competition called the Empire Exhibition Trophy was staged in 1938, with Celtic defeating Everton 1–0 in the final at Ibrox.
[51][52] (clubs from the NIFL Premiership and the League of Ireland Premier Division had also competed against each other in the Setanta Cup, last played in 2014).
For the 2018–19 edition, two English National League clubs were invited to take part in the competition,[54] and the first non-Scottish team reached the final – Connah's Quay Nomads of Wales, who beat Edinburgh City on penalties.
They would face Ross County at the Caledonian Stadium in Inverness, a controversial choice of venue being only 15 miles (24 km) from Ross County's home in Dingwall but a distance of 400 miles (640 km) for Connah's Quay Nomads;[55][56] previous finals had typically been held further south in Scotland's Central Belt.