5 min readBostonJun 25, 2026 11:00 AM IST
First published on: Jun 25, 2026 at 10:53 AM IST
Miles away from Miami, where Brazil beat Scotland 3-0 and damaged their knockout hopes, Boston mourned. In a week in the city, where Scotland played Morocco and Haiti in the group stage, the Tartan Army had captured Bostonians’ hearts so completely that Mayor Michelle Wu signed a letter of intent to make Glasgow and Boston sister cities.
After Scotland’s final group game in Boston against Morocco, the Boston Globe devoted a full page to thanking them. It read: “You came for the World Cup, but gave us something more. For a week, you turned train stations into singalongs, Fenway into a football ground, and an ordinary June into something we will be talking about for years. The World Cup will move on. So will the songs, but we will never forget the joy you brought to our city.”
Patriots owner Robert Kraft has petitioned the NFL to play a regular season game at Glasgow’s Hampden Park. The Boston Red Sox wrote to the Scotland Football Association. “What happened at Fenway Park on June 14th was something none of us will forget. We knew the Tartan Army was coming. We did not fully understand what that meant until we saw it,” Red Sox president Sam Kennedy said.
The Scots had marched to Fenway, filled the stands and revelled throughout, elevating the atmosphere beyond anything most of them had known. Governor Maura Healey joined the spirit, sitting down with a Scottish podcaster and signing what she called an executive order declaring haggis legal in Massachusetts — clarifying the next morning it was a joke. Haggis, made from sheep’s heart, liver and lungs, has been banned under federal food regulations since 1971. On Change.org, a petition has started: “Build a Tartan Army statue on the waterfront.” Massachusetts senator Paul Feeney went further, proposing that the Tartan Army return to Foxborough every year.
Scotland football fans take part in the Tartan Army March, making their way to Fenway Park ahead of a baseball game between the Boston Red Sox and the Texas Rangers. (AP Photo/Mark Stockwell)
Around 50,000 arrived for their two games against Haiti and Morocco, spending six days in the city. Dressed in kilts and playing bagpipes, they swarmed public spaces, interacted with locals, handed them their shirts and invited them for dinner and drinks. They donated $10,000 to Hasbro Children’s Hospital. They set a new trend too, placing a traffic cone on the statue of Boston Celtics legend Bill Russell outside City Hall. Thousands have since followed. Even Mayor Wu admitted: “I think we may see some lingering traditions from their visit, and I have to admit, I also put a cone on Bill Russell’s head outside City Hall. So, it’s been fun.” Benjamin Franklin and Abraham Lincoln were not spared either. It is a Scottish tradition dating from the 1970s, when a group of revellers placed a cone on the head of the statue of Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington.
The pubs almost ran dry. Boston Beer Co. said that in just four days the Tartan Army drank the equivalent of four times the company’s 4th of July sales. Devon Savage, from Boston Beer, told NBC Boston: “From Thursday to Sunday, the Tartan Army drank four times as much Boston Lager as we run through on a typical four-day holiday stretch like 4th of July. We had to schedule an emergency delivery on Saturday morning.” Haven, a Scottish pub in Jamaica Plain, exhausted 65 kegs — each holding around 10 gallons — in six days.
Thomas Mathew, an Indian bartender at Boston’s Public Tavern, says the week was unlike anything he had seen. “We had stocked up anticipating the tourists, but never imagined we would run totally dry. The day after the Haiti match, we totally ran out of beer. The shops usually shut around midnight, but they were here till morning. It was fun.” He missed the sights and sounds, the swathes of fans, their lyrical English and their lilting music. “I have become a fan of them, though I have not watched any of their games,” he says.
“As we begin our journeys to South Florida, we hope it’s not goodbye, but see you again soon,” the Tartan Army wrote on X as they left. Local residents are hoping for the same. If Scotland progress as one of the best eight third-placed teams, there is a realistic chance they play in Boston again, though the defeat to Brazil has toughened that route considerably. “We will never forget the week,” says Jimmy Chang, who runs a restaurant in the city’s Chinatown. He sighs: “I feel gutted for the fans with the way the team played.” The whole of Boston would echo him. And they would live on a prayer. To host the Tartan Army again.
The Tartan Army had captured Bostonians' hearts so completely that Mayor Michelle Wu signed a letter of intent to make Glasgow and Boston sister cities. (AP Photo) 
Scotland football fans take part in the Tartan Army March, making their way to Fenway Park ahead of a baseball game between the Boston Red Sox and the Texas Rangers. (AP Photo/Mark Stockwell)
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