Wales charter plane to take Bellamy to Finland

Wales demonstrated their determination to have Craig Bellamy in their European Championship squad by spending £8,000 to charter a plane to fly the Newcastle striker to Finland after his original plans were scuppered.

Bellamy, cleared yesterday to join up with Mark Hughes' squad, was left waiting at Newcastle airport earlier yesterday when his flight was delayed for four hours, meaning he would have missed his connecting flight from Amsterdam.

At that point it looked as though Bellamy would have to give up on his hopes of playing in the Euro 2004 qualifier in Finland tomorrow. But Hughes insisted that he wanted the 23-year-old in his squad so elaborate plans were put into place.

A Wales spokesman Ceri Stennett said: "It shows how important we felt Craig was to the squad. We are not exactly rolling in money, so the outlay had to be cleared, but everyone felt it was important to make the effort to get him here."