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Posted

to be fair I'd prefer that next summer than euro 2008, it will be great stuff...some great games and not the walkover many would expect...england may give northern ireland a game this time!



Posted

Wales would love it, but we'd still be crap. Mind you, I know we beat England in the last home internationals in the mid 80s. We might even have won or shared the title that year.

Posted

I was wrong - NI won it in 1984.

The reality is that the British Championship, which was what the home internationals had become, was put out of its misery in 1984 after staggering past its 101st year. Attendances had declined to a point where the English and Scottish FAs, if not the Welsh and Northern Irish, could see no future for the competition.

In that final spring only 14,250 watched Wales beat England 1-0 at Wrexham and a mere 7,845 turned up in Swansea to see a 1-1 draw with Northern Ireland, the eventual winners of the final tournament. True, Scotland's 1-1 draw with England was witnessed by a crowd of 73,064 at Hampden but only 24,000 had bothered to go along to Wembley to see England beat the Irish 1-0.

http://www.englandfootballonline.com/Cm ... mHist.html

Scrapping the tournament was a disaster for Wales, who, as everyone knows, don't do major championships (not in my lifetime, anyway). It gives us yet more reasons to enjoy results like last night's (sorry everyone), because we've always resented the English view that they were too good for the championships:

There were few mourners for the demise of the home internationals, although the Welsh and Northern Irish bodies could ill afford to lose the income even from the most meagre gates. The tournament had outlived its time and certainly the feeling in England was that the national side would be better employed playing the sort of opposition it was more likely to encounter in the World Cup or European Championship.

Not as often as they would like. So they might have to lower themselves to our level once again.

If it does come back, I can guarantee more than 14000 will be at the Millennium Stadium to see Wales play England. And I can guarantee that the pitch will be crap. Just like Wembley.

Posted

Not sure if the rozzers would be keen on the idea! My Dad and I went to the last ever Rous Cup game (when we won 2-0 at Hampden and there was running riots in Glasgow City Centre - brought an end to the annual event). We were in the family enclosure and there was a little toothless man in his 80s in front of us wearing a flat cap and a long, fairly threadbare, coat. When England's second goal went in he turned round and with a comical grin said 'Right let's dae the English, starting wi' this pair!' then he laughed.

I had a great day out and it was a real shame, if a little inevitable, that it kicked off that night.



Posted

This is where the likes of Talksport et al get on my tits. Time after time they, and many others scream that players play too much football and give this as a reason for the National team failing to perform at major tournaments (assuming they've qualified in the first place). Now the moment all the home nations are out they all start yelling for a home nations tournament to be played during the close season. WHY? What frigging good will that do? It's purely a money exercise for the likes of the FA to recoup some of the money they've lost through failing to qualify (*get the right manager in the first place for chrissakes!!). I'd much rather the players took the summer off, suffered watching a major tournament without their participation to make them hungrier for the next time they have to qualify and more importantly give our Chelsea players a rest for what really matters - Chelsea FC.

Posted

Agreed geezer. For me the biggest piss take of the fans is the joke international friendlies. I actually accept the need for various international games outside of the major tournaments and have no qualms about that however the fact that they are non competitive

a) makes a mockery of the ticket prices

B) means the quality on show is often poor

c) fails to teach the manager much at all that will be useful when things are competitive.

For me we should scrap the majority of friendlies and one idea would be to replace them with a home nations tournament. The games could be played home and away over say a 2 year period so each country would play 8 games over two years. Either that or you could extend it to include say France and Italy and do what they doin rugby and take it turn about in terms of playing home and away.

The only real reason to have friendlies would then be for purposes or climatising - say in the build up to a World Cup in South America or Africa.

Posted

but these won't be friendlies and are you suggesting England doesn't play any games for months before the world cup qualifiers...england austria is a sh*te meaningless game, england scotland, england wales, etc will be popular i think with most people and give the new manager some games to work with



Posted

I think it's a great idea, but England will never agree to it. After all, why would they want to take part in a competition where they'd be lucky to finish 3rd out of 4? icon_wink.gif

Posted
but these won't be friendlies and are you suggesting England doesn't play any games for months before the world cup qualifiers...england austria is a sh*te meaningless game, england scotland, england wales, etc will be popular i think with most people and give the new manager some games to work with

That is exactly what I am saying Brit - replace the friendlies with these games



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