Lets Scam A New Stadium

[Slim]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/league_of_wales/6175393.stm

 

The Football Association of Wales will hold talks with Scotland on a joint bid to host the 2016 Euro Championships.

Uefa president Lennart Johansson has encouraged Wales to enter a joint bid with Scotland and Ireland.

 

Last week Scottish FA chief executive David Taylor ruled out a triple bid from the Celtic nations, but may yet consider a proposal with one partner.

 

FAW secretary David Collins said: "At this moment in time we're floating the idea with Scotland."

 

Wales are encouraged by Wednesday's decision to give the Euro 2012 tournament to Poland and the Ukraine at a meeting which was held in Cardiff.

 

"It's raised the issue for us that there's the possibility of Wales and Scotland getting together to make a joint bid," Collins told BBC Wales.

 

"We will start talking with the Scottish FA to see if they feel they could join with us and hopefully in the next few months we will have a clearer idea.

 

"Then we could get the Scottish parliament and the Welsh assembly government to see if we could move forward to put a bid together."

 

Collins has been considering a potential joint bid with Scotland for some time, after telling told BBC Sport last December that he was exploring such a move and then outlining further plans last month.

 

A bid to host the 2008 European Championship finals was abandoned in 2002 when Scotland instead chose to partner the Republic of Ireland, only to be unsuccessful.

 

All bids must have eight stadiums with at least 30,000 seats and Wales were hampered by having just one stadium that met Uefa's guidelines - the 74,500-seater Millennium Stadium.

 

That could change with the planned new stadium for Cardiff City, and Collins says the FAW will look into the possibility of developing Swansea's Liberty Stadium and Wrexham's Racecourse Ground.

 

That would give Wales the necessary four stadia to pull their weight with the Scots, who boast a number of top grounds including Hampden Park, Celtic Park, Ibrox and Murrayfield.

 

However, Uefa is looking at the possibility of expanding the finals to include 24 rather than the current 16 teams, which could require further stadia.

 

 

Someone at the club should start putting out the feelers now for a government grant or something to save having to rely on the local council. IIRC it wasn't too far away from happening before Jack McConnell got his grubby hands onto the First Minister job.