England's Away and Neutral Venues History

Notes

England's first international match was played at Hamilton Crescent in Glasgow, Scotland on 30 November 1872.  Four more visits to Scotland followed, the last two to Hampden Park's predecessor, before England first played in Wales, at the Racecourse Ground in Wrexham on 15 March 1880.  England's first meeting with Ireland took place on 18 February 1882 at Bloomfield in Belfast.  Until the end of the British Championship in 1984, England visited each of the other home countries in alternate years--with the exception of the years of the two world wars and two later occasions when civil unrest in Northern Ireland forced a change of venue to England and an outright cancellation.

England's first full international matches against opposition other than the home countries came  when they visited Continental Europe for the first time in June, 1908, after the conclusion of the Football League season.  They met Austria in Vienna, Hungary in Budapest and Bohemia in Prague.  Another post-season Continental tour followed in late May and early June, 1909, when England paid return visits to Budapest for two matches against Hungary and to Vienna for a friendly against Austria.  But those were the full England side's last matches abroad until after the First World War.

Continental European visits resumed when England met Belgium for the first time in Brussels in May, 1921.  Beginning in 1923, when England played in France, Sweden twice and Belgium again, they became a routine event, with the exception, of course, of the Second World War years.  Nonetheless, there remain several European nations England have yet to visit, including smaller nations regarded as "minnows" in the football world and many of the new nations which emerged after the break-up of the Soviet bloc in the early 1990s.  Eventually England will visit all these countries as they are drawn in their World Cup and European Championship qualifiying groups.  For example, as part of European Championship 2004 qualifying play, England visited Liechtenstein, Slovakia, formerly part of Czecholovakia, and FYR Macedonia, formerly part of Yugoslavia, for the first time.  And in the World Cup 2006 qualifying campaign, they will visit Azerbaijan, formerly part of the U.S.S.R., for the first time.

England made their first visit to South America for the World Cup finals in Brazil in June and July, 1950, when they first met South American opposition, Chile.  Since then they have visited the Americas 12 more times: tours to both South and North America in May and June, 1953 (Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and the U.S.A.) and May, 1959 (Brazil, Peru, Mexico and the U.S.A.), a warm-up visit to Peru and the World Cup finals in Chile in May and June, 1962, a visit to the U.S.A. and a tournament in Brazil in May and June, 1964, a pre-World Cup tour to the Americas in June, 1969 (Mexico, Uruguay and Bazil), warm-up visits to Colombia and Ecuador and the World Cup finals in Mexico in May and June, 1970, a tournament in the U.S.A. in May, 1976, a pre-World Cup tour of South America in June, 1977 (Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay), another tour of South America in June, 1984 (Brazil, Uruguay and Chile), a pre-World Cup tournament in Mexico followed by a match in the U.S.A. in June, 1985, warm-up visits to the U.S.A., where they played Mexico, and Canada and the World Cup finals in Mexico in May and June, 1986, and a pre-World Cup tournament in the U.S.A. in June, 1993.  There remain several South American countries England have not visited, including Bolivia, Paraguay and Venezuela.  England have yet to play in Central America.  

England first visited Oceania for an official international in May, 1980, when they played their first match against Australia.  A second tour in June, 1983 featured three matches against Australia and a third in June, 1991 a single match in Australia and two in New Zealand. 

Africa first hosted England in an official international in January, 1986, when they played Egypt in Cairo.  Since then England have played a World Cup warm-up match in Tunisia in June, 1990 and in a pre-World Cup tournament in Morocco in May, 1998, and they made their first visit to the lower part of the African continent when they met South Africa in Durban on 22 May 2003.

England's first visit to Asia came in February, 1986, when they played in Israel just a month after their first match in Africa against Egypt.  They visited Izmir, in the Asian part of Turkey, in April, 1987.  In 1988 England made another February visit to Israel followed by a November match in Saudi Arabia.  They made a second visit to Izmir in Turkey in May, 1991.  They first visited the Far East in June, 1991, when they played in Malaysia at the end of their tour of Australia and New Zealand.  A third visit to Izmir came in March, 1993.  A second visit to the Far East in May, 1996 saw England play in China just before the European Championship.  They made their third visit to the Far East in May and June, 2002 for the World Cup finals, meeting South Korea in a preparatory friendly in Seoul before moving on to Japan, where they played Cameroon in another warmup friendly and all five of their tournament matches.  Finally, England played Turkey in October, 2003 at the Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadyumu, which is located on the Asian side of the Bosphorus in Istanbul.

Notes

The Ireland/Northern Ireland total consists of 18 matches played in united Ireland before partition and 30 in Northern Ireland after partition.  It does not include the six matches England played in the Republic of Ireland after separation.

The Germany/West Germany total consists of two matches played in united Germany before World War II, nine in West Germany after the country was divided, and one in reunified Germany, the celebrated 5-1 World Cup 2001 qualification victory on 1 September 2001.  It does not include the two matches England played in East Germany.

The U.S.A. total includes, in addition to the two named tournaments in which England played opponents other than the U.S.A., a 1986 friendly match against Mexico in Los Angeles, one of only three occasions on which England have played a stand-alone match--a match not part of a tournament--away from home against an opponent that was not the host nation.  The second occasion was the friendly played against Cameroon in Japan in 2002, just before the World Cup final tournament began.  The third occasion was a friendly match against Colombia in New Jersey in 2005.

____________________

PY/CG