Bavarian 767 Posted February 6, 2021 The annual Rugby Six Nations tournament kicks-off today. Why oh why can't we have something similar in our sport ??? We now don't even have a Speedway World Cup anymore, just that rather low-key "Speedway of Nations" pairs competition. Unfortunately the FIM does nothing to highlight the team aspect of speedway - which is actually what makes our sport so great and so very different from all the other motorsports. Therefore it is time for the biggest speedway nations to take it into their own hands and organise an international team tournament featuring the five major speedway nations. Team vs team racing, with six-man sides, in a round-robin tournament with two home and two away meetings. This must not be held each year, but only every other year, or four years. Poland, Denmark, Australia, Sweden, and Great Britain should be the permanent big five members. Maybe The Rest of the World could feature with a combined side as a sixth team in the tournament, to include the minor nations' top riders. Anyway, the national teams in speedway desperately need some kind of an international tournament. Currently we only have the SoN, and possibly one or two friendly internationals, like the Poles have each year. This is not enough and fails to capture the imagiantion of the sporting public, when there is no major tournament to look forward to. So if the FIM does not let us have a World Cup, there should at least be something else, such as a Five (or Six) Nations Cup speedway tournament. I guess that the fans, the riders, sponsors and TV stations in Poland, Denmark, Sweden, Australia and the UK would not vote againt this. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
racers and royals 8,730 Posted February 6, 2021 13 minutes ago, Bavarian said: The annual Rugby Six Nations tournament kicks-off today. Why oh why can't we have something similar in our sport ??? We now don't even have a Speedway World Cup anymore, just that rather low-key "Speedway of Nations" pairs competition. Unfortunately the FIM does nothing to highlight the team aspect of speedway - which is actually what makes our sport so great and so very different from all the other motorsports. Therefore it is time for the biggest speedway nations to take it into their own hands and organise an international team tournament featuring the five major speedway nations. Team vs team racing, with six-man sides, in a round-robin tournament with two home and two away meetings. This must not be held each year, but only every other year, or four years. Poland, Denmark, Australia, Sweden, and Great Britain should be the permanent big five members. Maybe The Rest of the World could feature with a combined side as a sixth team in the tournament, to include the minor nations' top riders. Anyway, the national teams in speedway desperately need some kind of an international tournament. Currently we only have the SoN, and possibly one or two friendly internationals, like the Poles have each year. This is not enough and fails to capture the imagiantion of the sporting public, when there is no major tournament to look forward to. So if the FIM does not let us have a World Cup, there should at least be something else, such as a Five (or Six) Nations Cup speedway tournament. I guess that the fans, the riders, sponsors and TV stations in Poland, Denmark, Sweden, Australia and the UK would not vote againt this. Sadly never going to happen. There is just not the money in the sport worldwide to entertain this. Sponsors are not exactly queuing up even for the GP`s. To make it meaningful each team would need to meet each other( at least once). The cost of staging 2 meetings in Australia would be astronomical. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bavarian 767 Posted February 6, 2021 Australia could be based in the UK and run their home meetings over here (maybe at Poole? ) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bavarian 767 Posted February 6, 2021 (edited) @ racers and royals sadly You are probably right, it might never happen, since nobody seems to care. All the Promoters and clubs do care about are their own interests. But the International game should have absolute priority over any Club or Individual meetings. In most of our sports the national team is usually the biggest showcase to present the sport to the general sporting pulic, who take not much interest in a particular club or individual riders. But if it is their own country that is represented, they can easily identify and get behind it. The Poles pay their top riders to ride in rather meaningless friendly Internationals each year, against Russia, Denmark, Australia or the Rest of the World in recent years. Thats better than nothing, and even these meetings get supported by sponsor and tv stations and make money. If these meetings had some more meaning, being part of a major international tournament, it would make it all much more interesting. To get things off the ground in the UK, the British team (or rather England) should engage with old enemies Australia in a proper test series and compete for a special trophy, be it "The Ashes" "or someting like a "Calcutta Cup" that England and Scotland play for in Rugby Union. Give the thing a name that catches on with the public and give it some media build up. The two "tests" in Western Australia, which Woffy helped to arrange early last year, were a start. This could and should become much bigger, though. Give it a go ! Edited February 6, 2021 by Bavarian Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bavarian 767 Posted February 6, 2021 I may be a dreamer, but I want Scotland to do all they can to get their own national team in Speedway once more. I know they don't have enough home grown riders at the moment, but then they must start to find and train them, or get them from elsewhere (Australia?) with Scottish ancestors. Remember what Jacky Charlton did to find players for the Irish National Football Team many years ago. It worked very well ! England and Scotland should both have their own teams again, and only on special occasions (such as the Speedway of Nations), they should and would merge into a "Team GB" (like other sports do for the Olympics). It is that tribal Thing that I miss in modern days speedway. I want Speedway to experience that same spirit of national pride and passion to get behind YOUR team, like the Scots experience every time their national Rugby Union side plays at Murrayfield. In Speedway such emotion is only found in Poland nowadays. Why not here and in all the other nations ? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
