London 2012: No Scotland or N Ireland in Olympic football squad

[lastlid]

"There will be no Scottish or Northern Irish players in the men's British Olympic football squad when it is announced on Monday.
BBC Scotland has learned that manager Stuart Pearce will list 18 players from England and Wales.
Fifteen of the squad must be under 23, with Ryan Giggs, Craig Bellamy and Micah Richards the three permitted overage players.
None of the England players at Euro 2012 were considered.
Four reserve players will also be put on stand-by, should anyone withdraw from the squad.
There were Scots, including Steven Fletcher and Barry Bannan, on Pearce's shortlist of 35 players.
The Scottish Football Association, along with their Northern Irish and Welsh counterparts, have taken no direct involvement with Team GB and have made it clear they do not want their players involved for fear of risking their countries' separate identities in world football.
But they cannot block players from participating."



http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/olympics/18653453

[Iani]

1 - this possibly is more confirmation of what has been said for a long time - the idea of "British" isn't very popular in Scotland, Wales etc, because British is thought of as "English".

The English seem most keen on all this "British" thing. That's a whole different debate though.

2 - I thought olympic contenders had to be amateur?

[lastlid]

1 - this possibly is more confirmation of what has been said for a long time - the idea of "British" isn't very popular in Scotland, Wales etc, because British is thought of as "English".

The English seem most keen on all this "British" thing. That's a whole different debate though.

2 - I thought olympic contenders had to be amateur?

Well yeah. But that dried up some time back as even the amateurs were effectively professional......

[Iani]

Well I didn't know

If it was up to me I'd cancel the olympics, all that cost to the British taxpayer