Why GB must enter a football team for 2012.
Posted by Gringo Maclure in David Beckham, England, HOT Topics, Scotland | 22 August 2008
If you live in the UK your coverage of the Olympics will largely be determined by what GB are competing in - cycling, rowing, swimming and track and field as usual. Living in Brazil, I've seen first hand the passion and commitment that teams are pouring into Olympic football and it's heady stuff. Again and again, I find myself asking "why can't we get ourselves organised to be involved?". The final of the men's tournament is tomorrow. Let's hope in 2012 it's a bunch of Britishers who have the chance of playing for gold.
I've read various articles which bat around the idea that a Team GB could be formed for 2012 (with a geriatric Beckham as captain) but the crux of the problem seems to be the non-English countries are very reluctant to see their associations enveloped into a GB monolith which might not even include any of their players in a starting XI. And so, the argument goes, it would be the thin end of the wedge and by World Cup 2022 we will be seeing a Great Britain team step out onto the grass at the sport's greatest tournament.
Now, I don't know the political machinations of the home nations football teams, but a closer involvement with each other both competitively and by wearing the same shirts - such as occurs in Rugby Union with the 6 nations tournament and also the Lions tours would be, it seems to me, win-win for all. Here's why:
1. The Olympics is unique in being a youth tournament but with the added spice of the 3 experienced players. It has a much higher profile than the U-21 European Championships and is a great testing ground for the next generation of international players. The tournament produces surprises and often 2nd-tier international teams, such as Nigeria (finalists again) and Cameroon, perform very well.
2. The Olympics treats men and women equally by allocating the same medals for both events. With 90,000 packed into the crows nest to watch a pulsating Brazil x USA final yesterday, it's big stuff for the ladies. I'm sure the profile of women's football in the home countries and Ireland would be raised if a GB team entered. The Brazil women outshone their male counterparts in this Olympics - not only in bagging silver with the men having to settle for bronze of worse - but in their total commitment right through to the final whistle. Perhaps our ladies could show our men's team a thing or two?
3. It's another tournament to win! All the home nations are somewhat starved of honours in recent years - here's a ready-made and high-profile competition that provides players a real chance to come away with prizes. In any case, minted young footballers rubbing shoulders with other "winners" at the Olympic village has got to be good news from the point of view of sports psychology!
4. It does not follow that a team GB at the Olympics will diminish the role of the associations of the home nations. This would be the only instance in the calender when this would happen. Surely, a contract could be drawn up to make sure the associations retaine their authority? Where's the flexibility and negotion from the powers that be?
5. It's about the football, people! When none of the home nations managed to qualify for Euro 2008 this last summer, a few column inches of the sports press were filled with a discussion on whether the home nations could play some sort of internal competition. What a great idea, I thought - more football, great rivalries and the chance for England or Scotland or Wales or N. Ireland or the Republic to finally win something and garner a much needed moral boost in the process. As usual, the world administration of football (or perhaps just the FA) is so big and clunky, and the ramifications of change evidently so huge, that a decision based on seeing thrilling competitive football (played on home turf no-less) was just too much to pull together in light of everything else.
But, the point I am making equally applies to the greatest international sports event in the calender, an event set to come to our shores in 2012. Football is fantastic. Let's stop the bickering and get out there and play it. Where's our Olympic spirit?
Comments
But won't Team GB just be the England team? Who from the other home nations would get in the side?
I'd rather keep the little identity that England has, thanks.
Surely we live in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Why are you excluding NI from our own country? Is that because they beat England at Windsor Park and David Healey might show up the over paid chavs from England.....
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