The British Olympic Association (BOA) angered Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales on Tuesday by trumpeting an “historic agreement” for Britain to field a united soccer team at next year’s London Games after a 52-year absence.
The three home associations, determined to safeguard their own national identities in world soccer, issued a joint statement rejecting what the BOA had hours earlier called a “landmark” announcement.
In it, they repeated a collective opposition to their players joining any Team GB (Great Britain).
“We cannot support nor formally endorse the approach that has been proposed by the Football Association,” the joint statement said.
“We have stressed this in communications to them and are disappointed that this has been ignored in the media release,” it said. “No discussions took place with any of us, far less historic agreement been reached, prior to the statement from the BOA being released.”
The BOA, the national Olympic Committee for Britain and Northern Ireland, had said in its statement that men’s and women’s soccer teams would be selected and managed by the English FA.
“Players from England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and other territories which fall under the BOA’s remit as an NOC [-National Olympic Committee], who meet the approved competitive standard will be eligible for consideration and selection,” it added.
A spokesman for the Welsh FA said separately that the BOA statement appeared to be “just a rehashing of old news and bits and pieces” and came “completely out of the blue.”
“There is no new agreement signed or any deals reached,” Ceri Stennett said. “The status quo remains the same.”
The debate over the participation of players from Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland in a British team has simmered since the Games were awarded to London in 2005.
The three countries compete with their own teams at international level, but cannot at the Olympics, where only Britain is represented.
The three associations fear they will lose their independent status within soccer’s world governing body FIFA if they allow their players to take part, despite their membership being enshrined in FIFA’s statutes.
The BOA said the FA had consulted with the Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland associations to develop the selection criteria and timeline.
“It has been a long, six-year journey to get to this point, with very real considerations from the Home Nations that first had to be recognized, respected and resolved,” BOA chief executive Andy Hunt said.
“We absolutely respect the participation of the Home Nations as individual nations at all other football events,” he added. “I want to express my appreciation to all four Football Associations for their recognition of just how meaningful it will be for Team GB to compete in football in London 2012.”
Scottish FA chief executive Stewart Regan suggested in an interview on the SFA Web site on Monday that the BOA’s desire to present a united team might have more to do with selling tickets.
The second round of British ticket sales for London 2012 starts tomorrow, with 1.7 million of the remaining 2.3 million tickets on offer being for the men’s and women’s soccer tournaments.
Some of those matches will be held in Cardiff and Glasgow, where sales have reportedly been slow given the likely absence of home-grown players.
“I guess Andy [Hunt] is under a great deal of pressure from the London Olympic Games Organising Committee and the IOC to get tickets on sale for the football events,” Regan said.
Britain last competed with a men’s soccer team at Rome in 1960 and won gold medals in 1900, 1908 and 1912. A British women’s team has never taken part in an Olympic soccer tournament.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB