Identity Crisis
Wednesday, 11 March 09, 11:29 AM · Comments(1)
by Stuart Gillespie
After a period of relative calm, the conflict over UK participation in the 2012 Olympic football tournament has come to a head again this month.
UK sports minister Gerry Sutcliffe has insisted there will be a Team GB playing football at the Olympics – despite three of the four home nations having made their opposition known in writing. As the BBC’s Chick Young said last night, it’s a strange kind of democracy. And don’t we usually agree that politics and sport shouldn’t mix?
The crux of the issue is the position of the home nations within Fifa. The organisation is bursting at the seams with member states – among the first to go in any streamlining operation could be four nations that are happy to be known as one in countless other pursuits, both political and sporting. Each home association, along with Fifa, also has an individual vote on the International FA Board, the game’s law-making body. This is a privilege that no other country is granted, to the chagrin of world football.
Many are nonchalant about the affair – it is certainly difficult to believe that well over a century of cultural history could be wiped out by entry into a single tournament. But no less august figures than honorary Fifa vice-president David Will and Uefa general secretary David Taylor have repeatedly warned the SFA about the growing tide of resentment among other member states for the home nations’ privileged position. To play ball with Sutcliffe, Lord Coe and the rest would be to bolster these countries’ stock of ammunition.
And as recently as February 28, Fifa president Sepp Blatter told SFA officials at an informal function that participation in the Olympics as Team GB would put the individual associations “in jeopardy”.
This threat to our footballing identity extends to the (English) FA too, yet there seems to be little urgency within Soho Square to preserve their separate status. Would English fans be happy with a UK-wide team for all competitions? Their country would certainly provide most of the players, but that seems incidental.
What are the views of the OleOle community on this issue? Is it worth risking our respective identities for an under-23 tournament?
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1 Comments · Add yours
I would like to point out that the above piece was written by a Scotch man and is therefore completely biased. As an Englishman, I would have no problem with the minnows being swallowed up by England. There would be no change in the lineup, just a new badge and snazzy kit.