WELSH football bosses had to lash out £8,000 on a private jet when airport delays scuppered Newcastle United star Craig Bellamy's plans to fly to Scandinavia.

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 despite objections from boss Sir Bobby Robson, was left kicking his heels at Newcastle Airport 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 all hopes of playing in the Euro 2004 qualifying clash with Finland, on Saturday.

But Hughes insisted he wanted the 21-year-old in his squad - even if he is unlikely to play for more than 20 minutes after a summer knee operation - so elaborate plans were put into operation.

After discussions between Football Association of Wales (FAW) secretary general David Collins and president Des Shanklin, the FAW agreed to splash out £8,000 and hire a seven-seater jet.

He arrived too late for Hughes' training session at the Olympic Stadium, so will only have one run-out with his colleagues before the match.

FAW spokesman Ceri Stennett said: ''It shows how important we felt Craig was to the squad. Mark Hughes wanted him here and we were not going to be beaten by a plane delay."

Earlier in the day Robson, who said on Monday he would do everything he could to stop him travelling, had continued his opposition to the trip.

Robson said: ''If that lad returns to Newcastle with any problems, all hell will break lose. We have invested a massive amount of money in his recovery programme, and we don't want anything to damage that.''

Newcastle are believed to have spent £50,000 on expert surgery in the US and Bellamy made his Barclaycard Premiership comeback for just 20 minutes in the 2-2 draw at Liverpool, and then played 53 minutes of a reserve match the following day.

Robson had insisted the Professional Footballers' Association Young Player of the Year was not fit enough for international football.