Wales and Scotland FA in tiny balls shocker

Sunday, 01 March 09, 06:22 PM · Comments(0)

News reaches darkside that boyos are weeping in the valleys – whilst jocks are gnashing teeth into their pints of Tenants Super – with the announcement that the Welsh and Scottish FA’s have halted an ambitious plan to plunge for a joint bid to host Euro 2016, due primarily to the "economic downturn" and the tournament's expansion.

And while I can’t deny that it would be absolutely magnificent to see another tournament head to the UK (who remembers the buoyant mood of a nation in that happy summer of ’96) – should we really be entertaining the notion of such European also-rans to host it? Yeah, OK, in the fine tradition of cup competitions, everyone should be given a chance to enter – and being a Coventry City fan I well know that magic can happen in the cup – and oh how I embrace that... But as a home nation, could the derisible Welsh/Scottish squads really bring anything to the footballing party?

I mean, the record tells all really – in the entire history of the European cup, Scotland have managed to qualify for two tournaments (crashing out of the first round in both) – and Wales well... Never qualified. Ever! Which makes me wonder what right they have to host one of the most important tournaments in world football?

Sure – I know that the bid shouldn’t be all about football heritage, and that all sorts of other factors have to be taken into account – after all, the minnows of Japan and Korea put on a great World Cup tournament a few years back? But I’m a bit of an old traditionalist when it comes to these tournaments – and think that a World/European Cup is always augmented by the host actually standing a chance of winning it!

So while i guess this is kind of disappointing – Scotland and Wales failing to host Euro 2016 is probably a damn good thing for world football.

Wales and Scotland FA in tiny balls shocker

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