Home Nations Championship Could Keep British Teams Busy Next Summer

With England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland all failing to qualify for Euro 2008, it’s going to be a quiet summer 2008 in Britain. But it doesn’t have to be. There have been calls for a one off revival of the old British Home Championship, where the four nations play each other once each and whoever tops the four team group is declared champion. Prime Minister Gordon Brown is all for it, though it’s really none of his business and depends one the four FAs sorting something out between them.

The competition goes way back to 1883/4 and was fought out every year (with a few exceptions) for 100 years until the decision was taken to abandon the competition after the 1983/4 Championship. There’d been a few crowd problems, and the 1980/1 Championship had been abandoned after teams refused to travel to Belfast because of civil unrest there following the Maze Prison hunger strikes.

I’d like to think that British society has advanced to the point where a Home Nations championship could be successfully staged again. England have played Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland in qualifying tournaments this century and there’ve been no major problems, and it’s also true that the crowd trouble that beset British football in the ’80s is largely a thing of the past. It’s also been suggested that fellow non-qualifiers the Republic of Ireland could be invited making it a five nation championship. That would probably require changing the name, but it would absolutely be worth it.

I would imagine all the teams would be keen to participate. England need to recover some lost pride and it would be a fantastic test for the new manager, Scotland will fancy their chances after an impressive qualification campaign, ditto Northern Ireland (who are the current champions after winning the 1983/4 title) while Wales’ young team would benefit from the experience. It would also be a money spinner for the four FAs.

The only stumbling block could be the four FAs relationship with UEFA. A summer British Home Nations Championship would essentially rival Euro 2008 as a viewing spectacle in Britain, decreasing UEFA revenues in the four countries. Everyone needs to keep UEFA onside for all kinds of reasons (World Cup hosting bids for example) so staging a rival tournament might not go down too well.

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Category: World Football