Team GB team to be allowed

December 18, 2008

Fifa look set to allow plans for a Team GB team to participate at the Olympics in 2012 but there are no plans to allow the team to participate beyond this.

By the 2012 Olympics it will be 52 years since a GB team last participated in the football tournament at the Olympics.

The approval looks set to be given even though Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland all opposed the plans.

Fifa president Sepp Blatter has already expressed his desire to have the hosts represented at the Games.

And it is thought he would be happy for all the players to be English if the other home nations refused to allow their players to take part.

The main concern from the remaining home nations is that their participation would lead the way for their individual countries to be lumped into a GB team for other tournaments and they wouldn’t be allowed to participate individually.

Fifa general secretary Jerome Valcke has attempted to assure these bodies that this would not be the case but Uefa president Michel Platini has said he understands the nations’ fears.

And an SFA spokesman responded to news of Fifa’s likely impending approval of a Team GB by saying: “Our opposition to Team GB remains resolute.

“Our concern is that Fifa members and Fifa executives in the future would not have the same view as this one - and, subsequently, our status as an independent member would be threatened.”

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