Local retailers look set to benefit from an extra sales opportunity after the First Minister proposed Monday 15 June 2026 as a designated national bank holiday to mark Scotland taking part in the World Cup for the first time since 1998.<\/p>\n
The bank holiday would follow Scotland\u2019s first game, which takes place against Haiti in Boston at 2am BST on Sunday 14 June.<\/p>\n
John Swinney said:<\/p>\n
\u201cScotland qualifying for the men\u2019s World Cup was a remarkable achievement and a landmark moment, and the reaction to the dramatic win against Denmark reminded us all what football means to the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis year, we want to make the most of this huge opportunity for Scotland and ensure as many people as possible have the opportunity to celebrate the team\u2019s success.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot only is this an historic sporting event, it\u2019s also a chance for Scotland to be on the world stage, to attract business development, create tourism interest within the country and to make cultural and sporting connections.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is why I am taking steps to ensure the Monday after our opening game should be national bank holiday, so that \u2013 no matter the outcome of the match \u2013 we can all come together to share the occasion.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Local retailers look set to benefit from an extra sales opportunity after the First Minister proposed Monday 15…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":678394,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5009],"tags":[10749,748,94,4884,712,21587,93,16,15,1514],"class_list":{"0":"post-678393","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scotland","8":"tag-bank-holiday","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-scotland","13":"tag-seasonal","14":"tag-sport","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-world-cup"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115849998513029150","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=678393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678393\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/678394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=678393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=678393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=678393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}