Home Nations Agree In Principle To Celtic Cup

Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland have agreed in principle to play a series of three biennial Celtic Cup football tournaments while England have refused to formally rule themselves out of participating.

The signed agreement commits the countries to arranging the tournaments on a league basis with home and away games to be rotated from one tournament to the next and with each team playing three matches in each of the competitions.

Speculation had suggested England would rule themselves out of the tournament on the basis that the players would be unable to commit to further congestion of the fixture list and the FA’s preference to generate greater income from summer tours and lucrative friendlies.

However an FA spokesman refused to rule out participation in the tournament stating: ‘We will just have to wait and see where our involvement lies next year and beyond.’

The failure of the four British sides to reach Euro 2008 is the first time since 1994 that no home nations have qualified for a major tournament.