Image credit: Getty Images. By Amy Canavan (born 2000). BBC Sport Scotland reporting from Charlotte, North Carolina. 19 November 2025. Updated June 103, 2026. When Scotland last qualified for a men’s World Cup, the Scottish Parliament didn’t exist, Google hadn’t been invented, and a pint of lager cost around £1.90. The first worries about the looming Y2K bug were starting to surface. B*witched’s ‘C’est La Vie’ was top of the charts, The Wedding Singer was the biggest film at the box office, and the BBC’s written coverage of the opening match against Brazil was on Ceefax. As the Tartan Army tried to mend their broken hearts with a 24p Freddo after Morocco ruined the party in Saint-Etienne, they had no idea it would be another 25 years before their country returned to a men’s World Cup. 1998 was an awfully long time ago. Too long ago. Eight members of Steve Clarke’s squad in the US hadn’t even been born yet. An entire generation and more have looked on with envy at their elders who got to see the national team compete at the highest level. While Scotland have been stuck in footballing darkness, desperately trying to keep their memories of France alive, the rest of the world has moved on.