THE Irish Football Association is keen to hold further talks with its Scottish counterparts over the possibility of a joint bid for the 2016 European Championships – but they are set to lose out to the Welsh.
All three national associations confirmed yesterday informal discussions over attempting to stage the finals in eight years' time had taken place.
More talks are set to be held in February but the Scottish Football Association is understood to fa
vour a joint bid with Wales as Northern Ireland does not possess the stadia required. IFA president Raymond Kennedy admits a radical overhaul of facilities is needed in the country.
Plans for a new national stadium to replace Windsor Park have long been in the pipeline but no decision has yet been taken about the best way forward.
Kennedy said: "I would be delighted if we were part of any bid for a championship that would give us some games.
"But, frankly, I do not think we are in that position at the moment because we do not have any stadiums that are suitable."
He added: "We are due to meet the Scots in other business in the new year and would be prepared to have more formal talks then about a possible bid for the championship. At the moment, we have held only tentative discussions about the situation. It is certainly an interesting idea."
The IFA's only hope of landing the tournament appears to lie in convincing its Scottish and Welsh counterparts to launch a three-way bid. But UEFA is unlikely to accept three host nations, as the privilege brings automatic qualification for the finals.
The possibility of Scotland hosting a European finals alone all but ended in September when UEFA announced the number of participants would be increased from 16 to 24 in eight years.
That plan was originally put forward by the SFA, who failed in a joint bid with its counterparts in the Republic of Ireland to host this year's finals. But it still harbours hopes of bringing the tournament to Scotland.
"As we've always said, we would love to host the European Championships in Scotland," an SFA spokesman said. "However, we realise it's a huge undertaking and, as far as 2016 goes, we simply couldn't host it by ourselves.
"We're meeting with the other Home Nations at the International Football Association board meeting in Belfast in February. I'm sure it's something we'll discuss."
An FAW spokesman said "very tentative" discussions have been ongoing for some time. UEFA is set to seek bid submissions for the 2016 finals in the spring.
The full article contains 440 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
