By Alan Wilson

DUNDEE UNITED and Dundee FC say they would welcome the chance to share a newly-built stadium in the city if Scotland was chosen to jointly host the 2016 European Championships with Wales.

The two Dundee clubs agree that they would be likely to benefit by their city being chosen as a site for a new stadium and are keen to move if Government funding became available.

The issue has arisen again after reports suggested the Scottish Government is to support a joint bid by Scotland and Wales to host the Euro championships, with eight stadiums in Scotland and four in Wales.

That would require Easter Road and Tynecastle in Edinburgh being upgraded and Aberdeen and the two Dundee clubs moving to new stadiums.

While the issue of ground-sharing between Scottish clubs has been muddied by the recent Gretna and Inverness Caledonian Thistle experiences, there is nothing in the SPL rules to prevent the city clubs relocating to and sharing a stadium.

Dundee Utd director Derek Robertson is reported as saying the Tannadice club would look seriously at the issue, while Dundee FC chief executive Dave MacKinnon indicated he has spoken to the city council and the university as potential partners in any scheme and both are enthusiastic about it.

An SPL spokesman said last night there was nothing in black and white to prevent ground-sharing between its member clubs or with a club from outwith the SPL.

“As things stand, ground-sharing is permitted,” he said.

“There have been various different reports recently suggesting that we were going to stop it but that’s not the case, our clubs can still put forward a case for it.

“Various successful clubs around Europe share stadiums and although we’re going to be reviewing our strategy later this month, and ground-sharing is on the agenda, it’s more about conditions attached to any proposal from clubs rather than stopping it.

“With any proposal we would have to look at the detail and look at ensuring our clubs had agreements in place.”

While Alex Salmond is keen to support the idea of a Celtic nations bid to bring the tourney to Scotland and Wales, one spanner in the works is expected to arrive with the likely plan to increase the number of clubs in the finals to 24 from 16.

That would scupper any thoughts of a bid from here as the number of stadiums required would rise accordingly.

Scotland failed in a joint bid with Ireland to host Euro 2008, which began at the weekend in Austria and Switzerland.

The issue of the Dundee clubs sharing a stadium was raised then. A site at the south-west corner of Caird Park was identified for the arena.

It would have had a capacity of 30,000 for the tournament and afterwards the top tiers would have been removed to make a stadium with a capacity for 20,000 spectators shared by Dundee United and Dundee.