The SNP is no match for Scotland’s Tartan Army

As the Scotland national football team gears up to play Switzerland at Euro 2024 today, memories of last week’s 5-1 defeat to Germany remain at the front of fans’ minds. “Last night was easily the most inept, cowardly display ever… worse than I could ever have imagined in my worst nightmares,” was one fairly representative post on the “Tartan Army” (TA) message board.

There are an estimated 200,000 Scots assembled in Germany for the Euros. Many will have spent a fortune travelling and staying there. Friday was beyond dismal, and another defeat today could see the team effectively out of the competition in less than a week. But any remotely realistic Scotland fan would have known that this was a likely possibility. So, what drives the Tartan Army, swollen at this tournament to one in 25 of the Scottish population, to expose themselves to this punishment?

The TA, dubbed “the world’s friendliest fans”, are a magnet for the media. And the recognition is lightly won, earned merely by dressing like extras from Brigadoon, mugging for selfies with locals, dancing in fountains, not punching anyone, and not being English.