So I haven't blogged in a while, I know. I'm going though some sort of life entropy at the moment.

And I know most of you readers don't care about football.

But I'm going to talk about England's (frankly unsurprising) exit from the Euro 2008 Championship. Those not interested can surf for porn instead. (or if that's why you came here, I'll be removing my shirt shortly and going to bed)

So it appears that the British economy is due a £2bn loss due to not making it to the Euro championship. Which economically I'm inclined to agree with.

Of course it's no big deal if the powers that be who ran football watched a bit of rugby. I don't expect them too given the snails pace they adopted other smart moves from the superior oval ball or the harder faster small red one (seriously we can't "go upstairs" to check if a ball crossed a line yet? you're kidding).

See, being a rugby man, I never quite got why there were no real "tests" in football and ever year when I went to watch the Autumn Internationals I got asked by football fans, what tournament was on. In football there seems to be, The World Cup, Euro-Tournament, Qualifications for The World Cup and Euro, and stupid pointless friendlies that have different (read stupid) rules. If you're not qualifying and you're not playing in a cup there is nothing to do. Not to mention the scheduling that at best is dotted around like a random topping on a pizza.

So to avoid this £2bn loss, and perhaps have some interesting football next year it doesn't take a genius to see what to do. Since none of the home nations managed to qualify for Euro2008, why not have a 5 Nations with England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, and Northern Ireland.

The players should be free. The stadium are there. There would be massive interest because of the long running passion/rively/nationlism/hatred/stupid between the nations that make up the British Isles and Ireland. There would be plenty of money and feel good factors.

Show it at the same time as Euro2008 (which would probably go down like a ton of bricks) or before or after. Or as curtain raisers. It would keep the players sharp, give the new Managers and Coaches some real games to play in, and the fans would love it.

Call it the "Sevitz Cup"