Team GB football team at Tokyo 2020 Olympics to be opposed by Scottish and Northern Irish FAs
A TEAM GB football team taking the field for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics took a knock today as the Scottish and Irish FAs re-affirmed their resistance to the idea.
There was a British football side for the London 2012 Games, but the idea was quashed for this month’s Rio Olympics.
Ryan Giggs was one of the over-age players to star for Team GB at the Olympics as he wore the captain’s armbandDaniel Sturridge played and missed the crucial penalty as Team GB were knocked out of the London Games on spot-kicks to South KoreaSteph Houghton was one of the star players for the GB womens football team at the 2012 Olympics as they reached the quarter-finals before being knocked out by Canada
England boss Sam Allardyce admitted he thought it was “a great shame” that Britain – the country that invented football – could not put forward men’s and women’s sides in Rio.
But the Scottish and Irish FAs continue to block any notion of a British team, just as they did at London 2012.
Then, only Welsh players joined the English for a Brit squad that was managed by Stuart Pearce.
A Scottish FA spokesman told The Times: “Our position is well known. We have always said that anybody who wants to play for Team GB is more than welcome to do that.
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Team GB came up against Brazil in the womens Olympic tournament in 2012Mark Sampson is the England womes team manager but was born and bred in Wales
“We have had this situation before 2012 with the women’s team. We wouldn’t want to stand in anybody’s way.
“But the view of the fans is well known. The potential threat to independent status in the eyes of Fifa remains just that, a threat.
“The independent status of the home associations has to be sacrosanct, it has to be protected.”
Scottish and Northern Irish players did not play in the London 2012 Games – as Welshmen Craig Bellamy, Neil Taylor, Ryan Giggs and Aaron Ramsey took to the field for GB.
Sam Allardyce and Sammy Lee have been scouting the England players ahead of their first game running the Three Lions team
It is understood the Welsh FA are also resistant to the idea of a British team – especially after their spectacular exploits at last month’s Euro 2016.
But there have been calls to reintroduce a women’s team.
England manager Mark Sampson was born and bred in South Wales and he led them to third place at the women’s World Cup last summer.
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