The SFA could launch a bid to co-host the 2016 European Championship finals with Wales, it was revealed yesterday. The two associations are weighing up the possibility of bringing Uefa's expanded 24-team tournament to Britain by splitting the costs to secure better funding.

The SFA, which failed six years ago in a joint bid with Ireland to stage Euro 2008. confirmed that talks will take place with their Welsh counterparts although the proposal was described as “tentative”.

Scotland appeared to have given up any hope of staging the finals when Uefa announced in September that it was increasing the number of finalists from 16 to 24. But the issue was put back on the agenda yesterday by the Football Association of Wales (FAW) - which will be able to contribute two stadiums in Cardiff to the bid - and now the SFA will decide if it can dust down the plans it had for Euro 2008 in the current economic climate.

Then, Scotland had seven stadiums as part of the joint Irish-Scottish bid which failed to even make the shortlist of contenders when Uefa came to vote on the matter. Three of those were in Glasgow (Hampden Park, Ibrox and Celtic Park), two in Edinburgh (Murrayfield and Easter Road) and one each in Dundee and Aberdeen.

The idea was been welcomed by David Taylor, the general secretary of Uefa, who is a Scot. “It would be terrific,” the former SFA chief executive said. “However, I must be careful. My enthusiasm for and advice to any country could be perceived in the wrong way. Many countries in Uefa are capable of hosting the tournament.”

The SFA announced in a statement yesterday that the plan will be discussed in February with the FAW. “As we've always said, we would love to host the European Championship in Scotland,” the statement read. “However, we realise it's a huge undertaking and, as far as 2016 goes, we simply couldn't host it by ourselves. We're meeting with the other Home Nations at the International Football Association board meeting in Belfast in February. I'm sure it's something we'll discuss. If there was a feeling that a bid was a possibility, we would then commission a feasibility study.”

Talks between the SFA and the FAW over a joint bid have been mooted for more than a year, with the latter revealing in April 2007 it hoped to enter into discussions but this marks the first time the SFA has confirmed such talks have taken place.

An FAW spokesman said “very tentative” discussions have been ongoing for some time. David Collins, the FAW secretary general, said: “The matter is on the agenda for our council meeting next week.”

Uefa is set to seek bid submissions for the 2016 finals in the spring and the expansion is likely to see the number of 30,000-plus stadiums needed to host the tournament increase from eight to at least ten.

Scotland currently boasts only four such grounds and Wales just one, but most bidding countries start from a position of having to develop existing facilities or build new ones. That includes Poland and Ukraine, who are hosting the 2012 finals.

The prospect of a Scotland bid received backing from across the country's political spectrum. The Sports Minister, Stewart Maxwell, of the Scottish National Party, said: “I'm sure every football fan in Europe would relish the possibility of their nation hosting such a prestigious event as football's European championship.”

The Scottish Labour leader, Iain Gray, said: “Following on from the Olympics Games in 2012 and the Commonwealth Games in 2014, along with the English bid to host the World Cup in 2018, it would make an incredible decade of sport in the UK.”

Jamie McGrigor, the Conservative sports spokesman in Scotland, said: “Like Glasgow 2014, it would provide another boost to Scottish sportsmen and provide long-term sporting inspiration for youngsters.”