Team GB: A fuss over nothing

The Scots are a spoilt bunch of crybabies. Seeing those words, typed by the soft hands of a
southerner, may make the average Glaswegian splutter into his morning porridge, but hear me out.

London is hosting the 2012 Olympics. London, the capital of the United Kingdom. As is traditional for the Olympic games, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will be entering athletes as a united nation. Team GB. But here’s the issue: for the first time in 40 years, the British Olympic Association will enter a football team.

As soon as the BOA announced plans to enter a British football team in the London Games, the
Scottish and Welsh Football Associations threw their toys out of the pram, insisting that they
would not co-operate. The SFA were particularly strong in their criticism of the idea and maintain that they will even refuse to allow their players to participate. The FAW said likewise, though the determination of the likes of Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey, both of whom were recently photographed in the GB supporters’ shirt, has weakened their stance somewhat.

Their reasoning? “The FAW will not undertake anything that would jeopardise its position as a
separate nation within FIFA and UEFA.” What utter nonsense.

Firstly, Sepp Blatter himself dismissed this notion: “The four British nations will not lose the rights and privileges acquired back in 1947.” Then again, this is also a man who has promised to tackle corruption within football’s governing body. Evidently, his word cannot be taken, so we must look elsewhere for a precedent.

Until 1972, the Home Nations all played football as separate nations, but united to form Team GB for the Olympics. The last time Team GB qualified was in 1960, at a time when Home Nations football was at its strongest – all four qualified for the 1958 World Cup. Since then, Northern Ireland have only qualified once more, and Wales haven’t even managed that. Playing for Team GB clearly didn’t affect their status back then.

Looking beyond football, the most obvious example of a single British side is rugby union’s British and Irish Lions, who gather every four years to tour South Africa, Australia or New Zealand. And yet there are no claims that this arrangement compromises the individual statuses of the Welsh, Scottish or Irish rugby teams. The Lions’ tour serves to unite the United Kingdom when successful and leads to friendly banter when the Lions lose: ‘why did we pick so many Welsh players’; ‘it’s all the damn Jocks’ fault’; and so on.

A collective Team GB ought to unite, where each of the nations come together to try to bring
success in their own country’s Olympic Games. Team GB would be no more than a one-off even
in the Olympics, because European qualification for the tournament is based on performance in
the Under-21 European Championships, which the Home Nations compete for separately. The
only reason that Team GB has been invited to enter on this occasion is because they are the hosts. Britain are the hosts. Not England. Britain. Matches are even being held in Glasgow and Cardiff to emphasise this. How could we host a football tournament in Scotland and Wales, but withhold the native players’ right to participate?

Football at the Olympics is not even an important event. Very few people take any notice of it. Over a million tickets for the football remain unsold. Could you imagine that being the case if the World Cup or European Championships were to be held in this country once again? The rules themselves are a bit bizarre: the squad is for Under-23s, with the exception of three elder statesmen who can be drafted in from the senior squad. FIFA don’t take it seriously. It’s not going to affect anything major; such as the nations’ right to enter the World Cup.

Surely, in this somewhat insignificant competition, it’s a time for diplomacy. Instead of entering into the spirit, the Home Nations are whining about the ‘integrity’ of their own football association. Could it not just be that they fear the embarrassment of how much the squad will be dominated by English players?

Assuming everyone is fit and available – and not including the potential three senior players – the strongest eighteen-man GB Under-23 squad I can see would be as follows:

Goalkeepers: Ben Amos, Jason Steele

Defenders: Kyle Walker, Chris Smalling, Phil Jones, Danny Wilson, Kieran Gibbs, Ryan Bertrand

Midfielders: Jordan Henderson, Aaron Ramsey, Jack Wilshere, Gareth Bale, Tom Cleverley, Jack Rodwell

Forwards: Theo Walcott, Daniel Sturridge, Danny Welbeck, Andy Carroll

Fifteen are English. Only Bale and Ramsey make the cut for Wales and Danny Wilson would be
Scotland’s sole representative.

The Scottish and Welsh football associations are merely throwing a strop because the Team GB
squad selected would inevitably provide a damning statement of how far behind England their
national sides are. Long gone are the days of 1958, and Scotland’s golden generation of the 1970s.

However, the childish fear of this humiliation is preventing players like Bale and Ramsey from
featuring in an international football competition, something every budding footballer dreams of
doing, which they are unlikely to achieve at any other point in their career. Hence their eagerness to be pull on the Team GB shirt.

The petulance of the SFA and FAW is pathetic and is keeping their players from what is potentially a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. If only they could just grow up.