If you can manage to see through the thick Beijing smog, the torch is about to be lit to mark the start of the 2008 Olympic games on Friday. As always, hopes are high that on these shores that Team GB can bring home some gold medals across various disciplines. Memories of Kelly Holmes becoming double Olympic champion 4 years ago in distance running, Edinburgh’s Chris Hoy taking the gold in cycling and Jonathan Edwards victory in the triple jump in Sydney are still vivid.
The British team will of course be made up of athletes from right across the British isles, with Scotland’s own Andy and Jamie Murray the sole representatives in the tennis event. And while we are there in number, there will be no GB participation in a few events.
And one of those is our national sport; football. The Olympic football competition is now taking on more importance than it has been previously, with Brazil sending superstars such as Ronaldinho to compliment the main squad comprising of under 21 players. But there will be no such players from these islands there.
However, with the 2012 Olympics being held in London, the pressure is on for there to be a British football team participating in the games. Sebastian Coe, one of the leading figures of London 2012, has demanded a British team be included while FIFA president Sepp Blatter has again waded into the debate, again insisting that “in 2012, there will be a British team”.
But the Scottish Football Association and their Welsh and Northern Irish counterparts are completely against the idea of a British national side. They say that such a move could be the start of a move to rip apart the individual associations and eventually create a united British side to compete on all fronts. Blatter could deny this, but there is a great feeling that that is what FIFA would like to see happen.
So the SFA et al are digging their heels in, and rightly so. Each of the home nations have long and established footballing histories, and Scotland V England is the oldest international match in the world. Each nation is proud of their footballing independence and a Great Britain side could threaten that. If all the associations went for the British team, then it may provoke FIFA into thinking “hang on here, they might want to go for that full time”. Which we don’t, despite the numerous lows which come with watching Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland or indeed England.
Another point is the picking of the players. Motormouth Blatter has once more commented “for us it is not important if the players are all from England.” Comments like these only harden the stance of the other home nations. The majority of the players would be from England anyway, and as we regard England as footballing rivals, how could we be expected to support it? Would Scottish, Welsh or Northern Irish players even get a look in, despite the fact there are plenty who are good enough? One would have to question that.
The individual identity of Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland is important, but especially so in football terms. It is not something we are willing to lose, for the sake of one Olympic Games which claims to benefit the whole of the country, when in actual fact the only real benefits will be seen in the East end of London, where the majority of events will be held.
I will as ever hope that the British athletes do well in Beijing and bring home some medals, from the Murray brothers of Dunblane to Paula Radcliffe. But team GB at the football? Coe, Blatter et al- you can keep that thank you. Preserve our independence.
