{"id":504829,"date":"2026-03-31T08:08:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/504829\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T08:08:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:08:08","slug":"why-are-scotland-playing-ivory-coast-at-evertons-hill-dickinson-stadium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/504829\/","title":{"rendered":"Why are Scotland playing Ivory Coast at Everton\u2019s Hill Dickinson Stadium?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Scotland<\/a> step up their preparations for this summer\u2019s World Cup <\/a>by hosting Ivory Coast<\/a> – but the international friendly will be staged in England and at Everton\u2019s Hill Dickinson Stadium in Liverpool. <\/p>\n

Steve Clarke<\/a>\u2019s team faced Japan at Hampden on Saturday<\/a> but the Tartan Army will be heading down the road and away from their traditional home on Tuesday night as Everton\u2019s new ground hosts its first men\u2019s international fixture. <\/p>\n

Officially, the fixture is part of marketing agency Pitch International\u2019s \u2018Road to 26\u2019 series – which has featured a number of games between teams who have qualified for the World Cup, staged at neutral venues. <\/p>\n

The majority of the \u2018Road to 26\u2019 series has been played in the United States, such as the friendlies between France and Brazil in Boston<\/a>, France and Colombia in Maryland, and Brazil and Croatia in Orlando, Florida. <\/p>\n

Scotland\u2019s match against Ivory Coast also falls under the series, but with the three-time African champion facing South Korea in Milton Keynes on Saturday and Scotland playing Japan in Glasgow, holding the match in Liverpool suited both parties. <\/p>\n

Scotland will play Morocco during the group stages of the World Cup while Ivory Coast will face Germany, so arranging a warm-up test against African and European opposition also suited both nations ahead of the tournament. <\/p>\n

The match works for Everton, too, with the \u00a3800m, 52,769-capacity venue set to host matches when the home nations stage Euro 2028<\/a>. England\u2019s Lionesses will also be playing a World Cup qualifier there, against Ukraine in June. <\/p>\n

\"TheThe Hill Dickinson Stadium was opened at the start of this season (Getty Images)<\/p>\n

David Moyes<\/a>, Everton\u2019s manager, said he was looking forward to welcoming the Tartan Army and the Ivory Coast. \u201cNo doubt that night will see Liverpool full of lots of kilted men and I hope you make them all welcome,\u201d the Scot said in a message to Everton supporters. <\/p>\n

Scotland\u2019s Nathan Patterson plays for Everton, with the right back following a long line of Scots who played for the Toffees – such as Graeme Sharp, Duncan Ferguson, David Weir, Andy Gray, James McFadden, Pat Nevin and Steven Naismith. <\/p>\n

Everton have also said that culinary delights from both nations will be served, confirming a slow-cooked \u201cIvorian beef stew\u201d will be on the menu along with \u201cStornoway black pudding loaded jacket potatoes\u201d, \u201chaggis and smoked bacon pizza\u201d and \u201cbattered Mars bar with whisky custard\u201d. <\/p>\n

Scotland last played in Liverpool when Wales decided to hold a key 1978 World Cup qualifier against the Tartan Army at Anfield, but goals from Don Masson and Kenny Dalglish earned the \u2018away\u2019 side victory that secured passage to the touranment in Argentina. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":504830,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[218,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-504829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-football","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=504829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504829\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/504830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=504829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=504829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=504829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}