As the Euro 2020 tournament progresses with three of the UK’s nations in the race for the knockout stages we asked a nationally representative panel of 1,035 football fans: Would you like to see a revival of the end of season home internationals?

The British Home Championship ran for 100 years before being abolished in 1984. England and Scotland have only played each other five times in the last 21 years.

Our poll finds that more than 2/3rds (71%) of Euro 2020 viewers would like to see the resumption of the annual competition between the four UK nations (including Northern Ireland). In Scotland, that figure is 85%.

We also asked: Who do you think will win the Euro 2020 tournament? The results were:

Team	% think will win
France	27%
Italy	24%
England	17%
Belgium	6%
Portugal	5%
Germany	2%
Spain	2%
Other	6%
Not sure	11%

24% think England will win in the East of England and West Midlands, compare to only 5% in Scotland and Wales. 12% of Scottish respondents think Scotland will win, and 23% of Welsh respondents think Wales will win.

For a bit of fun and curiosity from our own team, we also asked: If England don’t win the Euro 2020 tournament, what do you think their excuse will be?

The replies ranged from the straightforward – not good enough – to the surreal, including “Leaves on the track,” “David Seaman’s dog died in a hot car” and “Too many badgers on the pitch”.

Answers like “The other team is better” were the most common response, accounting for 11%.

Also popular mentions were “injuries”, 6% and “tired players” 4%.

Other noteworthy responses included “Wrong shaped ball”, “Because everybody in Europe hates them and they couldn’t take their hair stylists”, “Constipation following too many meat pies and sausage rolls”, and “Rabbits”.

Best of luck to the three UK nations, and we hope the 42% of the UK who are following the tournament are enjoying it as much as we are.

Photo by Aleks Marinkovic on Unsplash