http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/internationals/7114148.stm
[i]Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland have agreed "in principle" to play a series of three biennial "Celtic Cup" tournaments.
An agreement signed on Monday commits the countries to arranging the tournaments on a league basis.
Home and away games will be rotated from one tournament to the next with each team playing three matches in each of the competitions.
Last week England distanced themselves from involvement in the tournament.
Commercial arrangements and fixture dates are now being finalised. [/i]
England distanced themselves from involvement = we want to play meaningless but highly profitable friendlies instead so we can buy some new umbrellas and blazers plus the expenses and perks on those trips to the Middle East are better than Cardiff or Belfast.
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And I suspect the FA think the same here, 'The fans would rather see us play Argentina, brazil, and Mexico in a meaningless tournament now that we have fcuked up' Balls I say, rather see the home nations any day of the week, least it would mean something.
http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/footballnation/football-in-wales/2007/11/25/wales-angry-at-england-s-home-nations-bid-91466-20157057/
Most people seem to be agreed that there is too much football played and that the players aren't playing enough matches against European teams or even playing in foreign leagues. How is a Home Nations/Celtic Cup tournament going to improve the skills of the footballers involved, or the coaches and enable the teams to play better against non-British teams either in Europe or further afield?
Bit harsh on your Scottish and Ulster mates but whatever you say
They would if we were playing friendlies against anyone, drop them if they are too tired for a few semi-competitive friendly matches then find someone who isn't.
Bavaria :-)
Playing Scotland, Wales, NI and Eire every year, even in a so-called competitive environment WILL NOT automatically guarantee the improvement of the England team (which is after all the reason this is suddenly such a hot topic).
Since March, we've played Germany, Brazil,and Austria and we're playing France in March 2008. Austria asidethese are world class teams (although Austria are not the worst in the world by any stretch), if the games were given some kind of competitive edge and there was something play for it might just raise the bar and there would be more value in these than any game against one of the home countries. It works in cricket - every test/ODI game/series is about winning something and you don't see anything less than 100% every time.
All a home international-style tournament is about is about nationalism and bragging rights - not wanting to disrespect any of the home nations but give me bragging rights over Germany, France or Brazil any day.