FAI wary of new Celtic Cup proposals

SOCCER/International Tournament:FAI officials yesterday reacted rather coolly to strong suggestions by their counterparts in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland that agreement has almost been reached on the launch of a new "Celtic Cup", a four-team international tournament to be played every second year, starting in 2009.

Representatives of the four associations are scheduled to meet in Cardiff next month to discuss the idea and IFA president Jim Boyce yesterday described the proposal as being at "a very advanced stage".

Initially cautious, the Scots also appear to have warmed to the notion over the last couple of months with representatives stating the Scottish FA and its manager, Alex McLeish, feel the idea is a good one.

David Collins of the FAW, meanwhile, would seem to be the most keen of all those involved. "Things are provisional, but if we could pull this off, the interest would be enormous," he said yesterday. "For the fans, the TV companies and potential sponsors, a Celtic Cup tournament would be huge.

"We are quite positive about the whole thing, although we appreciate a huge amount of work is needed before it could get off the ground. But the Celtic countries have had a meeting about it and we each decided to go away and work out ways whereby the tournament could be possible."

A spokesman for the FAI conceded yesterday that "preliminary discussions" have indeed taken place but insisted there are serious hurdles to overcome before anything concrete could be agreed.

"There have been informal proposals," he said, "but so far nothing firm has been put on the table. Ultimately, the FAI's position would depend on what is proposed but at the moment we would certainly have some concerns about how something like this could be accommodated into the international calendar."

The idea being floated is that the event would be staged every two years with a draw being made for semi-finals to be played in August after which a final and third place play-off would be staged in February or March.

In each instance the dates set aside by Fifa for friendly internationals would be used to ensure the availability of players whose clubs are obliged to released them 48 hours before such games.

The precise qualifying mechanism for the 2010 World Cup has yet to be confirmed, however, with Fifa having to decide how 53 European entrants will be whittled down to 13 finalists. Large groups and the reintroduction of play-offs both look highly likely with the result that scheduling will be increasingly complicated.

The lack of flexibility in such circumstances could result in associations wishing to use friendly dates for competitive games as the FAI has already done twice in the current campaign although clearly such considerations might be set aside if the anticipated rewards for participation in a new tournament were sufficiently large.

One way of ensuring that were the case would be to persuade England to take part and, sure enough, Boyce made clear that an invitation to become involved in the process is likely to be extended to the English FA "I would love England to come into it as well and they will be invited to do so again but if not then we will press ahead with the Celtic Cup idea.

"It would be a shame if England will not resurrect the old British championship," he said. "All we are asking for is two friendly dates every two years, it's not an awful lot to ask for."

The economics of the whole proposal would be transformed by English involvement but that seems unlikely. In that scenario, it would seem far from certain that regular meetings between the other four would capture the imagination of the general public.

However, the FAI's concerns remain focused on the practicalities of organising such an event. "The fact that it is 2009 is positive because these are probably not the sort of games you would look to put into Croke Park," said its representative last night.

"Even then, though, it might be problematic to squeeze these games in. The Home Internationals were played in the space of a week at the end of the season and that worked well but it was at a time when there was a lot less competitive international football played and a great deal less football on television. We will, however, look at any firm proposals that might be made in relation to all of this."