Irish involvement in 'Celtic Cup'

I was pleased to learn that the Irish football team is to participate in a competition tentatively called the 'Celtic Cup', but I was disappointed to learn that this competition will not include the English team.

Initial plans are to hold a tournament every two years with the first tournament scheduled to start in the 2008/09 season.

A semi-final round in August 2009 would be followed with a final and a third-place play-off in February 2010. All four football associations are understood to be keen on the idea but the English FA are not.

I think this could prove very entertaining for football fans but why are the English unwilling to get behind the idea? My hunch is that they're worried the smaller teams will leave them with egg on their faces.

In the rugby Six Nations in recent years Ireland have shown they can outperform England and I think that a similar tournament in football would prove equally difficult for England.

Let's let all the teams from this archipelago battle it out for supremacy. I reckon we would have a very good chance of winning such a competition.