KEIR RADNEDGE COMMENTARY

— So, for Scotland and Wales to cosy up in the honourable cause of the moral crusade which is the Olympic Ideal is out of the question; however, snuggling up together for UEFA cash and not IOC concepts is a different matter entirely.

Personally, I don’t see it though this may be just my own personal failure to understand the delicacies of the issue.

Pep Guardiola . . . soon looking for a new, different challenge?

Consider, however: If lending a few of your players to a joint effort for a mere two weeks means risking independent life and limb in the shark-infested international waters how much more greater is the danger of being seen trailing, hand-in-political-hand, around the corridors of European football power for the next 18 months?

For the Irish Republic the issue is neither here nor there so we can exclude them from these considerations.

The Welsh and Scottish attitude to London 2012 has always been suspect. They didn’t want to play ball, literally, with the BOA but they were perfectly happy to permit Olympic football to be played at Hampden Park and in the Millennium Stadium.

That didn’t add up for a start, especially in the case of the SFA which owns Hampden Park and which expects, one assumes, to make some money out of the Olympic football tournament.

Independent football associations are the ultimate rulers of what football is played within their borders so the Welsh and Scots could – and for consistency’s sake – surely should have declined politely to permit Olympic football within their territories.

For whatever reason, they did not.

Now, the scenario has grown ever more baffling with the “expression of interest” in co-hosting Euro 2020.

If Scotland and Wales are serious and want to present a convincing united front then perhaps they should also consider merging their professional football.

That has fascinating potential. Imagine Swansea winning a Welsh/Scottish championship ahead of Celtic and going into the Champions League; Cardiff City, presumably, would not be far off either.

Not only that but a merged Wales/Scotland national team would enjoy a better chance, pooling their players, of qualifying for the finals of the European finals in France in 2016 especially now that 24 nations – virtually half the UEFA membership – will be there.

Colours? Blue or red? Easy. Blue and red stripes. Just like Barcelona.

On another flight of fancy, that Senor Guardiola is out of a job at the moment, too.

Co-hosting? Great idea, come to think of it…

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Also at LeadersinFootball.com

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