A Great Britain football team for 2012 Olympics ?

[FLi !]

There have been previous threads with the question of the practicality of a WI football team, imagine the difficulty  of a selecting GB football team.

Scotland have already said they will NOT support it, but the other federations are considering it, as it would be according to London 2012 be a ridiculous situation if the host nation and the home of football did not field a team.

The various federations however fear FIFA would turn around and say ok, why need all these separate countries competing, when we can just have one GB team.....it'll be interesting to see what happens.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/7067642.stm

[Rodney]

Look how difficult it was to get a GB Basketball team and that is ah Fringe sport in the UK.

I made the point before but there is a serious issue...the Olympic qualifiers are taken from the U21 qualifiers therefore there would be less oppertunities for international experience for the young players of the national associations. And, if you kept all the associations in the qualifiers other Nations would complain that the UK getting four oppertunites to qualify fuh the Olympics while they only get one each.

[Deeks]

That is a British problem. Is four nations within a nation. "They want to have the cake and eat it", if that is the correct analogy.  Some sports they play under their ethnic flag and in other sports they play under the Union Jack. All the same, they use the same Brit. passport. All this crap because England was an "imperial power" telling everyone what they should be and how to call themselves. But in their own corner of the earth they can't decide what they want to be. I know the Scots want to go their own way. If the other "nations" don't want to participate, leave them out. Is time FIFA tell them they should have one team or they should  split and have 4 bonafide nations. What if the Catalans get permission to play WC. Look how much confusion that will have. Whatt if Tobago say they want to participate in WC on their own. More confusion. England/GB/UK have create so much commesse in this world, we still recovering some of their grand designs. Who the the hell cares!!!

[Football supporter]

That is a British problem. Is four nations within a nation. "They want to have the cake and eat it", if that is the correct analogy.  Some sports they play under their ethnic flag and in other sports they play under the Union Jack. All the same, they use the same Brit. passport. All this crap because England was an "imperial power" telling everyone what they should be and how to call themselves. But in their own corner of the earth they can't decide what they want to be. I know the Scots want to go their own way. If the other "nations" don't want to participate, leave them out. Is time FIFA tell them they should have one team or they should  split and have 4 bonafide nations. What if the Catalans get permission to play WC. Look how much confusion that will have. Whatt if Tobago say they want to participate in WC on their own. More confusion. England/GB/UK have create so much commesse in this world, we still recovering some of their grand designs. Who the the hell cares!!!

Deeks, you make a good point. But there has always been four seperate national football teams, as well as four seperate rugby teams. The Great Britain idea is mainly for olympic sports, and its the British Olympic association that want the benefit of all four nations under one flag, even though they compete as seperate nations in the Commonwealth games.

I would be happy to go along with your thoughts and enter seperate olympic teams, and I assume, of course, that West Indies will no longer field a cricket team, but instead the Islands will all enter seperately.......or is that not ok with you?

The day I see a Trinidad, Jamaica, St Lucia, Barbados cricket team play a test match will be the day you may critisize the GB olympic team.

However, personally, I would love to see England, Scotland, N.Ireland and Wales competing seperately in the Olympics, not just at football, but at all sports.

[Deeks]

FPATT,
              To be honest I have no problem wether they go together or go seperate. Countries have changed their physical boundaries remarkably over the last 100 years. The Brits have the exception to rule. Even though they all use the same passport, they are four seperate nations under one parliament. It kinder weird.
             The cricket anaalogy  is similar but cricket does not  fall under the IOC. Cricket netball rugby are basically British sport that are played in the Common wealth. WI cricket team is a benevolent association. The ICC can tell them they have to break up and there is  nothing they can do, exception protest. In the Commonwealth Games, we have seperate cricket teams. There is no fuss. Personally I would love the see the WI carry a team to the Commonwealth games. It would not have any adverse effect on WI nations.
         This is just once in a lifetime Olimpic games in Britain and they acting like they are being forced to participate. I think that the English team should represent Britain if the others don't want to participate. Then what is stopping an individual Scots or Welshman from saying that they want to play. The most they can do is tie them to a cannon and fire.