The prospect of a British football team appearing at the London Olympics in 2012 appears to have receded after David Cameron said a government led by him would not support the idea.A clever and populist point of view with very little apparent disadvantages to the proposal- FIFA gets a Team GB, the four Home Associations keep their separateness and David Cameron gets honorary membership of the Tartan Army...probably.
The Conservative leader said he would not back the creation of a UK squad, which has been strongly opposed by the Scottish, Northern Irish and Welsh football associations.
While Gordon Brown backs the proposal, the Tories favour a home international championship to decide which team should represent Britain at the Games.
“I learnt a long time ago from watching Scottish friends watching various football teams playing that this was a subject best for politicians to steer well clear of,” Cameron said.
David Mundell, the shadow Scottish secretary, said Westminster would not seek to jeopardise the existence of a separate Scottish football team.
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Cameron says "No" to Team UK
Crafty stuff from Cameron:
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
the Tories favour a home international championship to decide which team should represent Britain at the Games.
Which is a very stupid idea if you want to keep the four "home" associations playing independently in international competitions.
If you want to stop the four "home" associations playing independently then Gordon's idea of a British team in 2012 is the bee's knees followed closely by Dave's playoff idea.
If Scotland, England, Wales and NI have a playoff to see who represents Britain for the Olympics then FIFA will use this format as a precedent for one British team in all other competitions.
Britain will still have four teams but only one will get to play in international competition after a play-off to decide who represents Britain.
Then again it's not that bad when you think it through. Save the Scottish Football Team, vote SNP will be a useful slogan.
...then FIFA will use this format as a precedent for one British team in all other competitions.
There is a strong lobby within FIFA, led principally by Warner, that wants the four teams eliminated/amalgamated into one. Whatever position the four FAs take for 2012 that position doesn't change.
So the harsh truth is that it doesn't matter in the long run who respresents the UK in 2012; where Cameron's position differs from Brown, however, is that the latter wants to split the national teams to form one *united* team.
Why I think he's (Cameron) played a fly one here is that he's linked the Olympic involvement to one of the four teams winning *the right* to represent the UK...do you really think that if Scotland wins that right, the Tartan Army or the average man in the street in Stirling or Dumfries will feel no affinity whatsover for a team of Scotsmen playing in a Olympic tournament?
Or to put it another way, "do you really think that if England wins that right, the Tartan Army or the average man in the street in Stirling or Dumfries will feel any affinity whatsoever for a team of Englishmen playing in an Olympic tournament?"
Post a Comment