Scotland v Wales (1876)
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| Date | 25 March 1876 | ||||||
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| Venue | Hamilton Crescent, Partick | ||||||
| Referee | Robert W. Gardner (Scotland) | ||||||
| Attendance | 17,000 | ||||||
The first international match for the Wales national football team took place on 25 March 1876 when they played Scotland at Hamilton Crescent, Partick, the home of the West of Scotland Cricket Club, with the Scots claiming an emphatic 4–0 victory. The match was organised by Llewelyn Kenrick who had founded the Football Association of Wales only a few weeks earlier.
The first official international association football match was between Scotland and England in November 1872 (although this had been preceded by a series of "unofficial" matches in the previous two years), following which Scotland and England met annually in a series of friendly matches.
Club football was well established in Scotland with Queen's Park having been established in 1867, although the earliest Scottish club is believed to be the Foot-Ball Club of Edinburgh founded in 1827.
In Wales, association football struggled to gain recognition with rugby being preferred, especially in the south. Football clubs were becoming established in North Wales with Druids and Wrexham both being founded in 1872. It would be over twenty years before football became established in the south, with Cardiff City being founded in 1899 and Swansea Town as late as 1912. There was no recognised league or cup football with the clubs having to arrange friendly matches between themselves on an ad hoc basis.
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