Great Britain Football Team at the Rio 2016 Olympics

The FA are planning to enter Great Britain football teams in the 2016 Olympics in Rio. They have written to the other Home Nation associations to inform them and ask them if they wish to take part.

I have been calling for this for years, even before London 2012. Both the England men's and women's teams qualified for Beijing 2008 and I have previously suggest any Home Nation team that qualified should represent Great Britain at that Olympics. Ie if England qualify they would play as Great Britain.

That said, a precedent has been set with the rugby sevens at Rio 2016 and a mixed Great Britain team:-
"Should any of the three teams (England, Scotland and Wales) finish in a qualifying spot at any stage, Great Britain will send a team to the Games. The final composition of a Great Britain team would then be determined by the three nations (RFU, SRU and WRU) and the British Olympic Association."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/31702679
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rugby_sevens_at_the_2016_Summer_Olympics#Other_issues

sportform wrote:I have been calling for this for years, even before London 2012. Both the England men's and women's teams qualified for Beijing 2008 and I have previously suggest any Home Nation team that qualified should represent Great Britain at that Olympics. Ie if England qualify they would play as Great Britain

Don't know why I am commenting on this to be honest as being even talking about it I am giving Team GB Football the time of day, but surely if you went on the 'Ie if England qualify they would play as Great Britain' policy then that equates to not all the best players from the UK being part of Team GB, just the English ones

But English players ARE the best in the UK. Only Bale would get in from the rest of GB and I could do without that ponce.

To my understanding the London 2012 Olympics and Team GB's football team was under 21's wasn't it with 5 that were over 21? So actually, we could see some Welsh, N. Irish and Scottish U21's that could be better than what we have. That's a good thing and I'm sure plenty of scouts will be taking notice in that one.

Under 23 with 3 over age players, the bulk of which would still be English, maybe Bale and Ramsey.

That's what I meant. The bulk would, but not all and that's the argument isn't it really.

Yes for the benefit of you pro-English people I agree you would make up the majority of the team. But the OP is suggesting that only English players should be allowed. Not really 'Team GB' is it

Or just "any" people. I think his point was that if the England team qualifies then that team stays together and goes

Personally I think Team GB should be made up of the best players from the United Kingdom regardless of which part they are from. The Lions rugby team seem to do it ok I don't know why it has to be so complicated with the football

Mainly because they're worried they'll have to compete as Great Britain permanently

GSC wrote:Mainly because they're worried they'll have to compete as Great Britain permanently

I agree with you mate. Team GB is a bad idea. Just hate this "Oh England will have all the players anyway so they should compete and no one else" attitude. Not the attitude to have

There's very little of that attitude

Dolphin Ziggler wrote:There's very little of that attitude

CFCNick wrote:But English players ARE the best in the UK. Only Bale would get in from the rest of GB and I could do without that ponce.

I mean FIFA will make them play as Great Britain in actual games

GSC wrote:I mean FIFA will make them play as Great Britain in actual games

Not sure how much clout FIFA have got here, they can't exactly force four football association to join together.

Hasn't that always been the argument from Fifa though?

I personally think that football shouldn't even be at the Olympics. The Olympics should be for sports where the Olympic event should be the pinnacle of that persons career. And from what I have read, quite a lot of people on the Olympic committee are fed up of mainstream sports trying to hijack their way onto the scene. Lets give the runners, and gymnasts and archers etc. a chance to have the spotlight when we already have world cups and continental tournaments in football

Steffan wrote:I personally think that football shouldn't even be at the Olympics. The Olympics should be for sports where the Olympic event should be the pinnacle of that persons career. And from what I have read, quite a lot of people on the Olympic committee are fed up of mainstream sports trying to hijack their way onto the scene. Lets give the runners, and gymnasts and archers etc. a chance to have the spotlight when we already have world cups and continental tournaments in football

This all week long,

Or if you want to compete it should be strictly the amateurs.

GSC wrote:I mean FIFA will make them play as Great Britain in actual games

At the risk of being pelted by eggs, I really wish they would. Have a Home Nations tournament in the summer alongside the international tournaments (or in the off years) for the people that aren't in it or something, but have a British team as the main one. It's hardly like they need to be split up in order to have some competition anymore, there are more than enough teams out there (why anybody thought Gibraltar should be added is beyond me).

Steffan wrote:

Dolphin Ziggler wrote:There's very little of that attitude

CFCNick wrote:But English players ARE the best in the UK. Only Bale would get in from the rest of GB and I could do without that ponce.

When one is many I'll give you a call. Not that he's wrong...

GSC wrote:Mainly because they're worried they'll have to compete as Great Britain permanently

Would that be a bad thing? England have no chance of ever winning a tournament, Scotland rarely qualify and Wales and NI probably never ever will.

A collective GB could never be worse than the individual 4 home nations, yes, it would largely be English, but you would get the odd Bale, Ramsey or Marshall in there.

I'd rather stay solo, I can't see much enjoyment for the other nations and it would detract from our own side too. Not that the players would be worse, but just that there's slightly more glory in failing without taking any desperate attempt to jump up a place in the rankings or two

Playing as Great Britain at anything other than the Olympics is a terrible idea, what real interest will there be for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland watching a mainly English side?

It would also require a complete restructuring of the League systems to incorporate the four leagues into one which is not logistically possible and where would the teams fit in to what would be the English league system?

SR, drop the predictable rubbish, it's only when threads like this are started that you ever comment about football and you can't say a team that has one an international tournament never will again. Do you have a crystal ball that shows you the future?

Hammersmith harrier wrote:It would also require a complete restructuring of the League systems to incorporate the four leagues into one which is not logistically possible and where would the teams fit in to what would be the English league system?

I think it depends on how you do it. Create a British Premier League (plus maybe a second tier) with the national leagues (EPL, SPL, WPL, IPL) below that and you wouldn't need to change too much beyond that. How you do promotion/relegation would probably require some negotiation, and you might need to create a Northern Irish team that has at least a chance of competing at the top tier, but I don't think any of it would be impossible.

Does always make me think they should drop the Carling Cup and make a British cup. Scotland and England both have a secondary cup and there's no doubt that the clubs in Wales would like a chance to get a dream tie. It would have to be handled smartly and you'd need regional ties earlier on, but it might draw some more interest in it. Celtic and Rangers in the later rounds, especially when they don't progress that far in Europe

Hammersmith harrier wrote:Playing as Great Britain at anything other than the Olympics is a terrible idea, what real interest will there be for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland watching a mainly English side?

It would also require a complete restructuring of the League systems to incorporate the four leagues into one which is not logistically possible and where would the teams fit in to what would be the English league system?

SR, drop the predictable rubbish, it's only when threads like this are started that you ever comment about football and you can't say a team that has one an international tournament never will again. Do you have a crystal ball that shows you the future?

I'd imagine it would be the same interest that non English people would have when supporting GB in other sports, OK, football has more of a moronic tribal element and perhaps less intelligent fans than other sports, but in time I think people would come round to it.

To say England will win another tournament is fairly laughable, given an indefinite period of time, yes, it is possible, in our lifetimes, obviously not, would GB win one? Probably not, but they might get further than the group stages, which is something England can only dream of at present.
If you are going to say "England" can win a tournament, then you might as well say "insert any country here" can win a tournament. Yes, possible, but not remotely probable.

England have underachieved not getting out of their groups, so I wouldnt say its something England can "only dream of"

Unfortunately you can't see 70 years in the future so it's an unquantifiable and incredibly biased comment, in the near future it may have some truth but go forward ten years and we have no way of knowing.

Like I said, in our lifetime, who gives a toss about anything after that?

England haven't just "underachieved" by not getting out of their group, their recent history in tournaments is dismal for their resources, and they were dead bottom in their group in the World Cup, that isn't underachieving, that's chronic failure.

One QF, One Rd of 16, One Group Stage and One failure to Qualify in 4 tournaments. Hardly a springboard for being in contention.

Back to the issue, a GB team would surely do better, not by much, but surely no worse.

I just hope us Welshies qualify for the Euros next year. We have got off to a great start. I just hope they don't do what the boys did for Euro 2004 and get off to a great start look like they could quality then drop points and lose in a playoff at the end

This side is better coached mind as Hughes had no experience. A better coach would have taken that team of Giggs, Bellamy, Harston etc through to the Euros

Lets just hope Coleman can do it with this generation. I'll believe it when it happens mind. But I can't fault our start to the qualifiers and that's all you can ask for given our small population, poor resources and lack of depth in talent

Nah, a GB team would be a disservice to the home nations.

If as you say we've had chronic failures and underachieving at the world cups, it just means we're waiting for the right tactics/manager to drop into place to take advantage of the immense talent that must be their if we're underachieving. So it stands to reason that we could very well see a tournament final/winners in our lifetimes.

super_realist wrote:Like I said, in our lifetime, who gives a toss about anything after that?

England haven't just "underachieved" by not getting out of their group, their recent history in tournaments is dismal for their resources, and they were dead bottom in their group in the World Cup, that isn't underachieving, that's chronic failure.

One QF, One Rd of 16, One Group Stage and One failure to Qualify in 4 tournaments. Hardly a springboard for being in contention.

Back to the issue, a GB team would surely do better, not by much, but surely no worse.

You must be a blast at parties.

In 2004 we were extremely unlucky and were clearly the best team in the tournament at the time of our elimination. 2006 we had a red card and who knows we might have gone through to the semi final and given a good account of ourselves. 2010 we were robbed of a legitimate equaliser that would place all the momentum on our side and we wouldn't be chasing the game and wouldn't be as open for counter attacks as we were.

The difficulty isn't so much whether or not we should send a team, it's more a case of getting players who want to play in the Olympics.

For a start, they wouldn't get paid for their labours so that will rule out the mercenary element (Rooney for a start.  He wouldn't touch the Olympics with a barge pole because he wouldn't stand to make a fat wad of dosh out of it).

Then there would be the opposition from club managers with their usual whine:  "My players need their rest in the summer or they will be too tiiiiiiiiiiired at the start of the league season."  This mantra is usually chanted by club managers as their team is in the departure lounge at Heathrow, setting off on their lucrative summer tour of Dubai to take part in a loadsamoney tournament in front of a crowd of twenty five Arab sheiks.  Those player who do go to the Olympics will leave for the Games with their manager's advice of "Don't get injured, don't exhaust yourself, and remember who pays your wages" in their ear.

The farce of getting a team together for London 2012 was evidence enough of the apathy for sending a team to the Olympics.  

IOC rules prevent the Games being used exclusively as a training exercise for kids but participating countries will try to get as near as they can to doing that within the rules.  Most countries are able to at least make it look competitive, but any notion that this as a tournament for elite footballers is a joke.  Some may want to go because it is "The Olympics".... the historic lure of the Games and all that..... but not the hard core of fatwallets and other assorted self-interest merchants.

Perhaps GB will be able to cobble together a team... of sorts... but I doubt very much they will get beyond the group stage.  

I'm truly sorry that things are like that.  I love the Olympic Games and I remember the story of Mickey Stewart (former England cricket manager and father of wicketkeeper Alec Stewart), who turned down a professional football contract with Charlton Athletic as a youngster, so he could retain his amateur status and play for Great Britain at the Olympic Games.

Who would do such a thing today..?

Rio 2016: FA scraps plans for Great Britain football teams

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/32125977

So, football in the land of it's birth  takes yet another giant leap into the 19th Century.

We are so backward in this country that its almost risible.  The other countries participating in the Olympic Games, as I said previously, use them as an opportunity to blood as many of their most promising young players as possible in tournament football.  Little wonder that Argentina gold medal winners in Beijing 2008 included Pablo Zabaletta, Angel di Maria, Sergio Aguero, Juan Riquelme, Javier Mascerano and oh yes, I nearly forgot, Lionel Messi.

Not done so badly for themselves, have they..?


The point of using the Olympic Games is not necessarily to win the gold medal (although that would be nice), but to give young players who are considered to have future international potential the opportunity to play tournament football.  And tournament experience against their contemporaries.... the people they are likely to face in major international tournaments in the future..... at that.  Not only does it give us a chance to see who really has got future potential, it also enables us to identify out those who will NOT make it and weed them out.

We see the Olympic Games as a hindrance and a threat to our individual, insular self interests and we shun it.  Our opponents see the Olympic Games as an opportunity.  And they grab it with both hands.  Gladly.

There was a time when we used to spurn the World Cup too.  FIFA had to offer advantageous qualifying terms in order to persuade us to take part in the qualifying tournament for Brazil 1950.  That was when it was believed that the tournament lacked credibility without England taking part.  By the time Brazil 2014 took place, we were nothing more than 'Also Rans'.  

We miss the boat every time, don't we...?  We watch it go sailing over the horizon and tell ourselves "Good riddance".  

Then we wonder why our opponents are so much better prepared, come World Cup time, than we are.