Home Internationals to be revived?

Posted January 10, 201114 yr

From the Independent:

FA in talks over home internationals revival
The Football Association are in talks over a move to revive the home international tournament.

Car giant Vauxhall, due to be unveiled as new England sponsors with a record-breaking deal tomorrow, are understood to have been the key movers behind a planned revival of the home internationals and want it in place as soon as next season.

The return of the tournament would see England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland compete against each other for the first time since 1984.

The FA have held talks about a new home international tournament but want to wait until after Euro 2012 is out of the way.

Vauxhall are also poised to complete further sponsorships with Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland within the next week as part of a campaign to become the driving force of football across Britain.

England will play top African side Ghana - quarter-finalists in last year's World Cup - in a friendly on March 29 but a planned friendly against Thailand in June has been scrapped.

The announcement that the Thailand match, timed to commemorate the 65th anniversary of King Bhumibol's accession to the Thai throne, has been scrapped comes as no surprise.

The match was tied in to England's 2018 bid but no deal had been signed and following the bid's failure it always looked likely that the FA would look again at the fixture.

Explaining the decision, the FA said: "Although an informal agreement had been reached for a friendly match following the qualifier with Switzerland, no formal details in terms of match date or venue had ever been established and, following discussions by the FA board, it was decided not to go ahead with the fixture."

The meeting with Ghana should prove a tough test for Fabio Capello's side as the Black Stars were the only African side to qualify for the knockout stages and would have reached the semi-finals had Asamoah Gyan not missed a last-minute penalty against Uruguay.

Ghana are well represented in the Premier League, with Gyan and defender John Mensah both playing for Sunderland while Chelsea's Michael Essien and John Pantsil of Fulham are other notable names.

The teams have met before at youth level, with Ghana claiming a crushing 4-0 win over England at the FIFA Under-20 World Cup two years ago.

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January 10, 201114 yr

Home internationals again ? I don't think its a good idea. Back in the seventies they were great - there weren't as many European club games then, but now ? Clubs struggle to release players for international friendlies as it is so these will be just the same. Waste of time - just the FA trying to ring the tills.

Would I want to see JT, Lamps etc trot off to Scotland the week before we play Johnny Foreigner FC in the CL SF ?

No.

January 10, 201114 yr

I think it would be a great idea, much better than playing meaningless friendlies which mean nothing to anyone.

It could work well if they stick with the old format, playing the games during one week after the season is over, or two weeks if the Republic Of Ireland were included. The competition would be great for the sides from Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, and it would be an excellent opportunity to experiment with the England team, maybe play more youngsters.