So what do people think about the idea of having a GB football team for the 2012 Olympics? An SNP MP, Pete Wishart, almost exploded with fury at the idea in the Commons the other day.
At the risk of being accused of not understanding the fierce tribal passions aroused by football (I do, my father lived in the UK for fifty years but still phoned me up from Ireland to gloat when Germany knocked England out on penalties; I was not impressed), can I say that I think we ought to have a GB national team all the time? Because then we might win something?
3 comments:
Is that the sound of a can of worms being opened?
I think most people are not against the concept in theory... however Scots like myself and I presume the Welsh and Irish are rather concerned that FIFA will impose a Team GB upon us for all other international tournaments.
If you think politics is bad yo should read up on some of the skullduggery that goes on in international football! Found your blog via twitter, so it's working for you already.
Kerry, this will have the Celtic fringe exploding with rage. The basic problem is that as we invented football in the late 19th century for 50 years all 4 home countries were world class sides. It culminated in the 1958 world cup where not only did England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland qualify for the world cup they also all made the quarter finals too. It is generally believed that if Duncan Edwards had survived the Munich air crash England may well of won the 1958 and 1962 world cups along with 1966.
Each home country has its own association and if compromised for the olympics it was thought that the UK will in future have to field one side. Everyone else will be out of a job in the other associations.
My question to Wishart is who in the Scottish team would get in the GB team? Same for NI and Wales. If there were more than 2 from the Celtic fringe I would be surprised, more probably all 11 would be English. Please also bear in mind the olympics, I am pretty sure is an under 23 event.
The glaring ommission from a UK/English football is Ryan Giggs. England Imo would of won one of the European or World Cups if he had elected to play or England at his peak. His pace and skill as a left hand sided player would of given us the balance that has eluded England for the last 10 years. Ryan Gigg's father is English and indeed he played for England under 18s. Whether it was his father's poor relationship with Ryan's Welsh mother or a promise he made to his Welsh grandfather, I don't know, but he elected to play for Wales as a senior international.
My comment on 1990 workd cup. I was working in New york at the time and most of the English got together in a sports bar in Greenwich Village. My overwhelming memory is to hear Pavarotti's Nessun Dorma as Chris Waddle's penalty sailing over the bar.
I have never been so crest fallen.
Does it make any sense for the EU provinces to continue to have separate sports teams? It's not as if Texas or South Carolina do. Subdivisions of the provinces- Scotchland or Bavaria or that bit of France I can't remember the name of** make even less sense.
**Sorry, state education.
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