They will be raging in Edinburgh and fuming in Cardiff, they might even be a little bit peeved in Belfast, but honestly, does anyone really think a Great Britain football team for the Olympics is such a bad idea?
Obviously I’m not Scottish so I don’t have any strong feelings about an independent Scotland, equally, despite the Welsh surname and the fact my dad’s middle name is Clwyd, I’m also not Welsh.
Interestingly, I do qualify to play for Wales through my grandfather on my mother’s side - well if it’s good enough for Vinnie Jones and half the Ireland team - Bernie Slaven, Mick McCarthy, Tony Cascarino and Andy Townsend anyone? - it’s good enough for me!
Sadly the call up has never come, although I reckon I had a chance of playing table tennis for the land of the dragons!
Once again, however, I have wondered away from what I was trying to say, what was it again? Oh yes, a GB team in the Olympics.
No, I’m not Scottish, Welsh or Northern Irish, I’m English, although interestingly, when asked for my nationality - you know hotels, questionnaires etc - I tend to put British. I’ve got a British passport, I live under a British government on the British isles which is protected by a British army. I also know half the words to the British national anthem!
So why, please tell me, can we not forget about our differences and have a British football team in the Olympics, an event where, despite all our other sporting rivalries, we compete as Britain?
The problem with Britain is that it is, fundamentally an English creation. The national anthem of England, for example, is also the national anthem of Britain. Certainly that is how the Welsh and Scots see it. England were the colonisers and they are the colonised, but come on, does any of that really matter anymore?
Look, I know the Scots and the Welsh have their own unique nationalism, increasingly so do the English, but we still share a hell of a lot of common ground. If we were, heaven forbid, attacked by a foreign nation, we would fight together as Britain wouldn’t we?
Unless them sneaky kilt wearers, led by prominent Scottish nationalist Sean Connery, decided to take advantage of the situation and declare a Scottish Republic!
The main stumbling block for a British football team at the Olympic games in the past has been the fear Fifa, seeing that the home nations had united in the Olympics, would demand they did the same in the European Championships and the World Cup. Four football Associations would become one, lots of people would lose their jobs and someone would have to design a new kit. Far too much hassle, even without the nationalism thing!
That’s a pretty good reason, but Fifa have assured all the football federations this will not be the case if we enter a GB team into the Olympics in the future so, as Peter Beardsley said in his Journal column on Friday, let’s stop bickering about petty politics and make this happen.
If a British team was announced tomorrow, the majority of players would be English, but there would still be Welsh, Northern Irish and Scottish players in there. Tottenham’s Gareth Bale, Fulham Steven Davis and Celtic’s Scott Brown for example.
Mind you, it is a bit of a struggle to find them..... Maybe we should just enter an English team and say it’s a GB squad. Now that really would annoy them in Edinburgh and incense them in Cardiff wouldn’t it!
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