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Britain set for All-English team in Games

Great Britain is set to be represented by the England soccer team at the 2012 Olympics after the other UK nations agreed not to block the proposal.

FIFA, world soccer’s world governing body, has set a deadline of the end of the month for all four British nations to come to an agreement over Olympic representation.

The Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish FAs all fear their independence in world soccer would be under threat if they united with England to play as a British team at the London Games.

But the English FA are determined to field a team on home turf and an agreement now seems to have been reached amid fears that a continuing row would damage the home nations’ international reputation.

A joint letter has been sent to FIFA saying that Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales will have no involvement but would not prevent England from fielding a team.

It has been suggested that the England team would be an Under-23 selection, with two overage players, and would compete under the British flag in both the men’s and women’s competitions.

Scottish FA spokesman Rob Shorthouse told the BBC: “FIFA had asked us to come to some sort of common decision amongst the four home nations by the end of this week — so that, when the FIFA congress meets next week, this deal was all done and dusted.”

“We have not been able to come to a common agreement because England want to take part and Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland don’t. Our stance has not changed. We will not be taking part in Team GB.

“England do want to go ahead. They are under unique pressure with the Olympics being in their home country,” he said. “We have to preserve our independent status as a member of FIFA. We are sticking to our guns.”

“I think the English are going to go it alone. We’ll continue our discussions with the home nations and also speak to people at the Fifa congress next week,” he said.

A formal announcement is not expected until at least next week and would need to be agreed to by the British Olympic Association and International Olympic Committee as well as FIFA.

But the SFA’s acceptance of the plan has already led one member of Scotland’s parliament to call for the resignation of Scottish governing body’s chief executive Gordon Smith.

Scotland National Party backbencher Christine Grahame, who chairs the parliament’s Health and Sport Committee, accused the SFA of caving in over an issue that poses a threat to the future of Scottish soccer and could damage the Scottish economy regardless of whether it was made up entirely of Englishmen.
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