[3][4][5] Founded in 1873,[6] Scotland has the second oldest national Football Association in the world (behind England's FA), and has various professional and amateur levels.
It was prohibited by the Football Act 1424, as it distracted men from their marital duties,[8] and although the law fell into disuse, it was not repealed until 1906.
The sport was played by commoners and royalty, such as King James VI and Mary, Queen of Scots, alike.
[9] In Perth, apprentices progressing to become master craftsmen in the 16th-century had to pay for a banquet and a game of football.
Football was mainly played during times of festival like New Years Day or Fastern's E'en.
This search for "rational recreation" was brought upon by the temperance movement along with city municipal and philanthropic projects.
By the late 1800s, Association Football was one of the major cultural activities among the male population of Western Scotland, both as player and as spectator.
Railroads helped with accessibility for travel to games in other cities, making a professional league viable.
Of the thirty seven football grounds in existence in 1887, twenty of them were within one hundred yards of a railroad station.
[12] Contrary to media reports in 2006 there is no reference to forward passing, game rules, marking players or team formation.
These reports described it as "an amazing new discovery" but has actually been well documented in football history literature since the early twentieth century and available on the internet since at least 2000.
The founding clubs were Queen's Park, Clydesdale, Vale of Leven, Dumbreck, Third Lanark, Eastern Granville and Kilmarnock.
[17] Celtic, who have won 54 Scottish league championships, were the first non-Latin and first team from Great Britain to win the European Cup, in 1967.
The Old Firm rivalry was interrupted in 2012, when the company running Rangers went into liquidation and the club was forced to restart in the fourth tier of Scottish Football.
Clubs must also have under-soil heating systems to prevent cancellation of matches caused by frozen pitches.
Junior clubs, unlike those in the senior non-league level, were not in the main eligible to participate in the Scottish Cup until 2007–08.
Additional junior clubs (Banks o'Dee) have received an SFA licence which permits them to participate in the Scottish Cup.
[20] They play in leagues across the country of varying standard, usually confined to a specific localised geographic area.
The attendance of 146,433 for the 1937 Scottish Cup Final between Celtic and Aberdeen at Hampden Park is a European record for a club match.
The highest ever attendance for a UEFA competition match was in the 1969–70 European Cup semi-final at Hampden Park, Scotland's National stadium.
Dundee United reached the 1987 final, and their fans won an award for their good behaviour from UEFA after their defeat to IFK Gothenburg.
Celtic fans won a similar award after their team lost in extra time to FC Porto in the 2003 final.
The majority of Scotland's home matches are played at Hampden Park in Glasgow, opened in 1903.