Neville Southall 'who took the jam out of his doughnut?'

Southall is against Gareth Bale playing for a GB team in the Olympics as he believes Wales have nothing to do with Great Britain!!!!

"The whole point of going to the Olympics is that special moment when your flag goes up. What flag are they going to put up if they win it? The Union Jack? It's not my flag. My flag's a Dragon.

"As a Welshman I'd rather play for Wales if I was in the Olympics. I would want to go and represent my country.

GB is your Country, Its ok for Welsh soldiers to be repatriated in the Union flag so I fail to see why this over weight thick has been has a problem with it?

"I don't see the point having a Great British team. You will just lose the identity of all the teams."
(FIFA don't have a problem with a team GB just for the Olympics, what’s the matter Nev don't you trust FIFA?)

Does anyone -- or should anyone -- trust FIFA? I understand the other home nations' concerns really. They may be setting a precedent...what if the side won? Would pressure form to do it permenantly? After all FIFA do hate the home nations...

This is the big problem with the Olympics that the English do not seem to understand.
Fifa are looking for ANY excuse to amalgamate the four home nations but the English do not seem to realise that any NEW team would be British. The result would be [Proclaimers voice over] 'England No More'.

Personally I would not be against such an idea as it would open the way to a British Football League.

As a Welsh fan I'm more than happy for England to take the lead on this. Why not? What the hell have Scotland, Northern Ireland or Wales done on the World stage for years?
Secondly is not exactly a secret that most Welsh fans would rather watch England than Wales anyway, any time International football is on I tend to look for England's result first. If Wales and England are playing Internationals and you go to a pub, you will normally see the England game on.
Wales and England have merged cricket successfully. While the English FA are kind enough to allow our larger football clubs play in the English pyramid, despite the problems it causes within FIFA for them.
I don't see why the Republic and Northern Ireland don't merge both their countries and play as Ireland like in rugby. It would stop all these silly arguments over poaching each others players, while Wales, Scotland and England could form a UK team. Ireland's and the UK's football would be much better as a result.
Certainly no one cares about International football in Wales I went on the 606 forum to congratulate Scotland after reading on the BBC Sport that Scotland had beaten us, and saw a load of Scottish fans looking for Welsh fans to bait and annoy. I was the only Welsh fan posting on the topic and suggested if they want to annoy Welsh fans go to the rugby forum! The truth was there wasn't a single Welsh fan posting on about the game. It says it all really doesn't it...

The Millennium Stadium does seem to be less than full (the exception being when England were in town) when the football is on, but I didn't expect that the fans would be happy to watch England over Wales!

A UK team I think is impossible however, as long as we have seperate leagues which all have European qualification possibility. I may be wrong -- Serbia and Montenegro perhaps would be an example, but they did split!

I think to a degree there is just enough nationalism in each of Scotland, England and Wales to generate the opposition that would stop it proceeding.

Doon the Water wrote:This is the big problem with the Olympics that the English do not seem to understand.
Fifa are looking for ANY excuse to amalgamate the four home nations but the English do not seem to realise that any NEW team would be British. The result would be [Proclaimers voice over] 'England No More'.

Personally I would not be against such an idea as it would open the way to a British Football League.

The sooner we get a UK league the better.
Four, or maybe five full divisions, then regionalise it, more money would come in, money would be spread further, but most importantly, the UK is way more important than England, Scotland NI and Wales are as individual entities.