THE FOOTBALL Association of Ireland (FAI) have been sounded out about the possibility of taking part in a reheated version of the Home International Championships.

A spokesman for the FAI last night revealed that the matter had been raised with chief executive John Delaney during last week's Uefa Congress in Dusseldorf, and that the association responsible for governing football in the Republic of Ireland would now undergo internal discussions before coming to a decision.

"We have been approached and asked about the actual tournament," the spokeman said, "but nothing has been decided yet. It has come back in here to be discussed internally. We haven't decided whether to give it a yes or no.

"Our CEO will talk to the board, and the international manager, before we make a decision on it."

Northern Ireland - who are still theoretically the holders of the competition, having won the last version in 1983-84 - have been the most outspoken in calling for the return of the tournament in the last couple of years, but the reluctance of England to participate and the crowded fixture calendar were always thought to be insurmountable obstacles to its re-emergence.

The idea is still at such an embryonic stage that the participants, full or under-21 status, format and fixture calendar are all still up for grabs, but this potential involvement of the FAI opens the door to the competition even going ahead on an inter-Celtic basis without the involvement of England.

"I think there is the potential of creating something, if not at full level then maybe at under-21 level," Irish Football Association (IFA) chief executive Howard Wells told the Sunday Herald. "I think that some kind of Celtic competition including the Republic of Ireland would have a lot of merit."

SFA chief executive David Taylor is another who is coming round to the idea. Relations between the SFA and FAI are cordial, with Taylor working closely with his southern Irish counterpart Delaney on shared proposals to enlarge the European Championship finals from 16 teams to 24 teams and, given the recent reduction in under-21 qualifying fixtures and a possible resultant reduction in qualifying dates at full level, he feels there is definitely the sense that some kind of tournament could now proceed.

"We would like to see some way of introducing some kind of competition," said Taylor. "It depends on a lot of things, including the fact that if we had a different tournament in terms of the European Championships there may be other dates which are freed up. If there were dates I think that an opportunity may arise.

"It is still some way off yet. But it is one of those ideas that is still kicking around. There are all sorts of formats - you could have it as a knockout, or a mini-league as it used to be."

New Scotland manager Alex McLeish was actually part of the last match that Scotland played in the competition, his then Aberdeen team-mate Mark McGhee scoring in a 1-1 draw against England at Hampden, and he would be keen to see Scotland take on England at the new Wembley, just as the Scottish women's team are preparing to take on their English counterparts next month.

"That would be great," McLeish said. "It would be a great venue for the players. There are a lot of Anglos in our squad and I am sure they would relish the thought of going to play there. In my time the games were always pretty competitive.

"But I understand the modern-day demands. The clubs are obviously concerned at players going away a lot on international duty."

When the competition ended in 1984, Scotland had 41 wins compared to England's 54, with Wales having won 12 times and Northern Ireland eight, but although Wales are thought to be supportive of moves to relaunch the competition, the FA south of the border remain unconvinced. A spokesman said they had met the home nations four times in the last few years in any case and, given the crowded fixture list, would be unwilling to sacrifice friendlies against nations from elsewhere. Another obstacle would be the prospect of hooliganism, which saw the Republic's last home match with England in 1995 abandoned due to crowd trouble.

First on the agenda for the home nations in any case is a meeting on Monday, to decide which of four candidates from each of the home associations will inherit David Will's role as Fifa Vice-president when he finally steps down at the end of May. The FA are putting forward Geoff Thomspon, the IFA Jim Boyce, Peter Rees is coming from Wales, while the SFA are putting forward John McBeth, but there is no mechanism in place to decide who wins in the likely event that each of the four vote for their own candidates.

The home nations, it seems, are in competition already.