SCOTLAND will be playing at a World Cup for the first time in nearly 30 years at the weekend and in the wee small hours of Sunday morning we will likely see a huge outpouring of national pride.
What provides an intriguing backdrop though is that this is the first time since devolution Scotland will be in a World Cup, with Scottish independence now an integral part of our national conversation.
So how might Scotland’s participation in the tournament impact on Scottish independence support? We’ve spoken to the experts.
A ‘complicated relationship’
For Dr Fergus Neville, whose research at the University of St Andrews focuses on social identities and the behaviour of crowds, it is possible to argue both ways and he describes the link between political beliefs and sporting pride as a “complicated relationship”.
When asked if he thought independence support could be boosted through the World Cup, he told The National: “It does reinforce a separate Scottish national identity on a world stage. We are competing as Scotland, not as the United Kingdom, and it normalises the idea of Scotland being an independent team or entity. It allows people to really express that shared Scottishness.
“I [also] think because sport allows people to express a sense of Scottishness and Scottish identity, in some ways that can act against support for independence.
“That’s because often in independence movements, it’s the constraint or restriction on being able to express oneself clearly which is one of the driving factors.
“I think also when it comes to Scottish sport, the politics is less explicit [than in other places]. If you compare that to something like Catalonia, where sport and Barcelona is such a political entity and during [Francisco] Franco’s regime the Nou Camp was a site where people could express their Catalan identity freely but otherwise, they couldn’t do so, I think that’s quite different in Scotland because we are allowed to express our national identities.”
Does it depend how well the team does?
How the team performs and the results they produce at the tournament will likely impact on how fans feel about their nation and what it is capable of on the world stage.
But for sports psychology expert Alban Dickson, based at the University of Stirling, whether the team are successful or not in the US matters less than how they carry themselves and represent Scotland’s values when he pondered a potential spike in independence support.
He told The National: “What we lacked in Germany [Euro 2024] was that Scottish spirit. We looked a bit flat, we looked like we were playing to get through it and not embarrass ourselves.
“What we’re wanting is to be more like Albania a couple of years ago who didn’t necessarily get the results they wanted but they had a great sense of spirit and a never-say-die attitude. It’s moments when those values come across that really captures the hearts and the imaginations of the people back home.”
He added: “I think the easy thing to say is that if Scotland are successful that will fuel the notion that we can go at it on our own, but I think there is more of a nuance in terms of how we represent ourselves when we are out there. If we represent ourselves with a sense of dogged determination, I think that will resonate well back home.”
An unknown political context
Neville pointed to there being a general lack of evidence to suggest that support for independence and pride in the national team are intrinsically linked.
But then again, Scotland have not competed in a World Cup often and have not done so since becoming a devolved nation of the UK, so there is the element of Scotland competing in a new political context.
“If we have a good performance from the team that will lead to a sense of national pride. This is an identity that people value, so when the team do well that means we do well collectively,” Neville said.
“There’s a political phenomenon called basking in reflected glory – if the team do well you see more people wearing Scotland strips the day after the match. Whether that relates to politics, I think the evidence is flimsier.
“If you are already a supporter of an independent Scotland, then pride in the national team doing well is likely to bolster that or cement it, but whether it changes somebody’s opinion who wasn’t previously a supporter of independence, I think there’s less evidence for that.
“But then Scotland have not competed in many World Cups, particularly when independence is being actively discussed and the poll numbers are quite close.
“I’d say based on previous evidence, I don’t think there’s that relationship, but also we haven’t been competing on the world stage, so it will be interesting to see that and monitor the numbers for this tournament.”
