Britain United for 2012 Football

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Footballers from Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and England will be available for selection for Team GB at the 2012 Olympics.

There has been opposition to all-British teams competing in London from every home nation apart from England.

But the British Olympic Association said an "historic agreement" has now been reached.

"It has been a long, six-year journey to get to this point," said BOA chief executive Andy Hunt.

However, the BOA announcement has sparked outrage from the Scottish and Welsh FAs.

Scottish Football Association president George Peat told the Press Association: "I am absolutely astounded that they have put out this statement. I know nothing about any such agreement and we want nothing to do with this tournament."
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Welsh FA president Phil Pritchard was equally furious, saying the FA had no right to speak on behalf of the other associations on Olympic matters.

Pritchard told the Press Association: "We are not part of any agreement. The FA have no authority to speak on our behalf - they do not represent Wales whatsoever and that's a fact.

"We have not discussed this at any time recently."

The BOA's statement indicated that all home nations were behind the move to field a GB team made up of players from England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.

"The FA has consulted with its partner associations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in developing the player-selection criteria and timeline," read the statement.

"All four associations have received a written assurance from the secretary general of the Federation Internationale de Football Association (Fifa), the international federation for football, that participation in the 2012 Olympic football tournament will in no way compromise their autonomy and independence for other Fifa-sanctioned tournaments, nor will it have any impact on their positions of leadership within the Fifa governance structure."

The last time Britain competed in an Olympic football event was in 1960, when the men's side failed to win a medal in Rome after beating Taiwan 3-2, drawing 1-1 with Italy and losing 4-3 to Brazil.

Team GB has never fielded a women's football team at an Olympics.

More to follow.

could be a good team we have now, is there a reqiurement that people from each country must be picked? Otherwise i can probably only see Bale and Ramsey getting in the side filled with english players

Who would realistically get in the GB team from Scotland and Northern Ireland though? No offence to any Scottish or Northern Irish people on here but lets face it it will only be English and some Welsh players who get a game.

Fuck knows but i reckon they'll need to pick players from each country or it wont be a British team, it was only England who wanted the team anyway.

I heard a quote on the radio from some Welsh FA guy saying this will never go ahead because "they want to keep their national identity". Yet the are searching high and low at the moment for players from other countries that have Welsh grandparents.

Craig Levein is doing the same, searching America now, fucking arsehole.