An U.K. National Team of football 4 the next Olympig games?

[milanocapitale]

What do u think about the idea to present at the next Olympics the UK as an unique national team instead of the single national teams as it happens now?

[Donald]

AFAIK, there has always been a British Olympic team called "Great Britain" under the flag of the Union Jack. Olympics are not football.

[milanocapitale]

I forgot the word "football".thanks

[lazza]

It just won't happen.

Even though I think it would be nice to have a football team representing the UK at the London Olympics, Scotland will always veto the idea.

The problem will be which of the national authorities (the FA, SFA, FAW and IFA) will administer the team. Scotland won't agree for the english to be in charge (and vice versa). And it would be unlikely that many Scottish, Welsh or N. Irish players would get into the squad (at the moment) so there would be ridiculous arguments from the start.

[Fjon]

Also look at the quality of the different countries' first divisions. England obviously has the best, and richest, while Scotland, Wales and NI (do these countries even have first divisions?) lag behind. Therefore the best players are likely to be from England. I can't imagine many NI players making the final team.

[yli]

I can't imagine many NI players making the final team.

Wasn't George Best from Northern Ireland ?

[Fjon]

Wasn't George Best from Northern Ireland ?

He was, but when's the last time he played?
Ryan Giggs is Welsh too I believe, but I can't think of one other Welsh player of a similar calibre.

[mirandolina]

Scotland certainly has the Premier League, which is the equivalent of the First Division. I think the Welsh teams play the same circuits as the English, but Lazza can probably tell you more about that.
Celtic and Rangers are as good as many top English teams and play the International circuits (excuse my lack of football terminology....)
But now they have so many international players, relatively few Scots are in the top teams. Many of the players in Scotland's national team play for English clubs. I don't know the exact numbers though.

Also look at the quality of the different countries' first divisions. England obviously has the best, and richest, while Scotland, Wales and NI (do these countries even have first divisions?) lag behind. Therefore the best players are likely to be from England. I can't imagine many NI players making the final team.

[Van Geel]

(do these countries even have first divisions?)

The answer is yes.

The teams in the Welsh league (with their points):

Total Network Solutions 36
Port Talbot Town 27
Welshpool Town 24
Rhyl FC 22
Newtown AFC 22
Carmarthen Town 21
Haverfordwest County 21
Bangor City 19
Llanelli AFC 18
Porthmadog FC 18
Caersws FC 18
Aberystwyth Town 14
Cwmbran Town 14
Airbus UK 14
Cardiff Grange Quins 13
Caernarfon Town 11
Connah's Quay Nomads 11
NEWI Cefn Druids 9

Northern Ireland:

Linfield 12 11 1 0 45 9 36 34
Glentoran 12 9 2 1 26 7 19 29
Portadown 12 7 2 3 30 18 12 23
Ballymena United 12 6 0 6 14 21 -7 18
Dungannon Swifts 12 4 5 3 26 21 5 17
Cliftonville 11 4 5 2 13 10 3 17
Newry City 12 5 2 5 19 17 2 17
Coleraine 12 4 4 4 18 23 -5 16
Limavady United 12 4 3 5 18 21 -3 15
Glenavon 11 4 3 4 13 19 -6 15
Lisburn Distillery 12 4 2 6 14 21 -7 14
Armagh City 12 4 2 6 14 22 -8 14
Loughgall 12 4 1 7 15 18 -3 13
Institute 11 3 2 6 20 31 -11 11
Larne 11 1 4 6 13 24 -11 7
Ards 12 1 0 11 10 26 -16 3

[Van Geel]

"Was the 1936 Olympics the last time Great Britain entered a football team into the tournament, and do you know who the team was?" asks Matthew Ashton. "I believe my great uncle, Dan Pettit, was a member of the team as well as playing for Liverpool, Arsenal, and Everton."
Far from it, Matthew. As recently as 1972, GB entered a team for the Munich Games, but failed to qualify, losing out over two legs to Bulgaria. Whereas GB fielded an amateur team, in line with the then-Olympic ideals, Bulgaria were able to field virtually their World Cup line-up as the country had no professional footballers. Despite this, Slough Town's Joe Adams fired Britain to a 1-0 first-leg win at Wembley in March 1971, only for a 5-0 hammering in Sofia two months later to deny them a place in Germany. According to the FA's website, the predominantly English team that lined up at Wembley was: John Swannell (Hendon), Paul Fuschillo (Wycombe), Bill Currie (Albion), Ted Powell (Wycombe, captain), Derek Gamblin (Leatherhead), John Payne (Enfield), Roger Day (Slough), Rod Haider (Hendon), Peter Hardcastle (Skelmersdale), Ken Gray (Enfield) and Joe Adams (Slough).


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The last time a British team actually reached the Games themselves was in 1960, but here they crashed out in the group stage, unable to emulate past glories of 1908 and 1912 when they had won gold on both occasions. GB was represented in London for the former by the English amateur team; their path to the final included a 12-1 battering of Sweden and a 4-0 win over the Netherlands, before goals from Frederick Chapman and Vivian Woodward sank Denmark 2-0 in the final at White City.
In Stockholm four years later, it was again the Danes who found themselves on the wrong end of a 4-2 beating in the final, as GB triumphed again - aided somewhat by Harold Walden's 11 goals in three games.

[Van Geel]

The smallest league in the world is on the Isles of Scilly. It has two clubs, Woolpack Wanderers and Garrison Gunners, who play each other about 20 times a season. They compete for two cups too.

Honourable mention should perhaps go to Liechtenstein. Despite having seven senior clubs they have no league at all - everyone plays in the Swiss leagues. They do have the keenly-contested Liechtenstein Cup however, with a place in the Uefa Cup up for grabs for the winners, who are regarded as the champions of Liechtenstein.