Make Room For the Jocks, Paddies (and Latvians)

The fools and knaves at the Scottish Football Association are attempting to persuade UEFA to expand the European Champhionship finals to 24 teams, no doubt because of their historical ineptitude at getting anywhere near the damn thing. When we have seen how so many of the teams that grace the World Cup every four years are scarcely worthy of the epithet 'world-class', why would anyone want to see the also-rans of Europe trudge about in a tournament that is unarguably more competitive? It is bad enough that the cloggers of Austria and Switzerland will be present in 18 months due to their hosting of the next tournament. Scotland are supported by fellow mediocrities Latvia and Ireland, with whom they fielded an embarrassingly bad attempt to host those same 2008 finals. You'd think the FAI, given their handling of the Steve Staunton affair and the subsequent mauling by a team of Cypriot hairdressers, would see it best to lay low for a while and stop making pathetic excuses for themselves. Next they'll be asking to be made play only against schoolboy selections in competitive games.