GORDON Smith, the chief executive of the Scottish Football Association, has given a cool response to the revelation by his Welsh FA counterpart, David Collins, that the two countries have discussed a joint bid to host the 2016 European Championship finals.
Collins revealed that "tentative" talks had taken place, and could resume at the conclusion to Euro 2008.
"If you look at the size of Austria and Switzerland, they're not a million miles away from Scotland and Wales," said Collins, presumably r
eferring to size rather than distance.
Smith responded by claiming that the story had been "greatly exaggerated." He added: "It was at the end of another meeting with the Welsh FA that the possibility was mentioned. It wasn't a meeting about hosting (Euro 2016], as has been reported.
"If UEFA increase the tournament to 24 teams (from the current 16] then that would definitely rule us out. If it remains 16 then it's perhaps something we could talk about, but there's a lot of work ahead and at the moment there's nothing in it at all."
Yet it is a proposal that could be supported by the national events agency, EventScotland. "Our response would be the same as Gordon's," said Paul Bush, the agency's chief operating officer.
"It's not pie in the sky but it's a long way from coming to fruition.
"There are a lot of 'initial discussions' held about a lot of events but there can be no real discussion until UEFA decide what kind of tournament they want, which will be autumn at the earliest."
In terms of infrastructure the two countries almost qualify. Of the required eight 30,000-seater stadiums, Scotland has four in Hampden, Celtic Park, Ibrox and Murrayfield, while Wales, claimed Collins, "will soon have three venues" – the Millennium Stadium, the Liberty Stadium in Swansea and Cardiff City's new ground, though these facilities fall a little short, seating 25,000 and 20,000 respectively.
If they can be expanded then so, goes the logic, could grounds in Scotland, from Aberdeen's proposed new stadium to Hearts' planned Tynecastle development.
The full article contains 354 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
