SFA boss Smith wants to renew Auld Enemy fixture

Published on Monday 23 February 2009 16:48

SCOTTISH Football Association chief executive Gordon Smith has vowed to continue his quest to resurrect the Auld Enemy clash with England despite difficulties over finding a date.

The Football Association yesterday confirmed they were unlikely to be able to arrange a fixture in the next 18 months.

Smith's English counterparts had agreed to play Scotland in May last year, but George Burley turned down the opportunity as he faced playing with an under-strength team.

The Scotland manager's experimental side instead lost 3-1 to the Czech Republic in his second match in charge.

Smith has been pressing for an alternative date but it appears unlikely one will emerge before 2011 at the earliest.

"It's going to be difficult," the former Rangers and Brighton player told PA Sport.

"I have to thank England. I pushed them to arrange a game and they came back and gave me a date last May. So we had a Scotland-England game arranged for May 2008 but we had to pull out.

"Celtic and Rangers informed us that their players might not be available as they were planning to go on tour. George Burley didn't want to play the game without the Old Firm contribution.

"So we have already let England down but I tried to get the point across to them that it was a postponement and we would try to rearrange it.

"It's difficult, there are a lot of fixture dates already in place, and tournaments, so it's not easy.

"We will have ongoing discussions with the FA to try and arrange it."

The countries, who played the first official international in 1872, last met in 1999 when Scotland won 1-0 at Wembley but lost on aggregate in a European Championship play-off.