Disaster Index: 5.1 Entry: The 28-Year Interval Cause: Scotland returning to the World Cup finals in a country that is structurally unrecognisable from the one that last attended. Category: Historical / Emotional Evidence: At the 1998 finals, the Scottish Parliament did not exist, Google was not operational, and a pint of lager cost approximately £1.90. The country has changed around the absence. The absence has not changed. Historical precedent: The gap between 1958 and 1974 — sixteen years — was, at the time, the longest recorded interval. The current gap is longer. The country now returning is not the country that left. Affected parties: Anyone who was present in 1998 and has been maintaining the memory in the interim. Immediate outlook: The interval is closed. What was accumulated inside it travels with the squad to the group stage.