You have 4 nation states, part of the larger country wide United Kingdom. Great Britain if you're excluding Ireland.
Team GB?
- Thread starter weescott
- Start date
By country I meant internationally recognised sovereign state ...
Why are we undoing all the work done in 1707 and devolving power instead of making progress towards being a true single county.
If the Scots don't want to be a single country anymore they are welcome to **** off; and take their Prime Minister and Chancellor with them. Same can be said for the N. Irish and the Welsh.
I'm all for a union; but it needs to be a proper one not the devolved mess we have right now.
Well said.
We, as in any UK government in power (but not me) are wanting a united Europe, but we devolve power to our nation states? WTF is that all about.
Oh i know, split the vote get what we want without a referendum.
A true GB team would still field 11 english players anyway.
Caporegime
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as i understand it, its more Scotland, wales and ireland that are worried about losing their teams, yes the idea is Fifa might push for a GB team for the world cup/euro's but, if we're honest I don't think it would change the teams much in terms of england. i can't see many of the irish/scottish/welsh team making it into the team selection before english players.
theres nothing being talked about merging leagues, it would become a joke because there is a lot of football teams out there across the leagues. bringing two spl teams across is barely being discussed, merging dozens of teams is not even an option.
So the fact is the new "gb" manager is still going to choose most of his players from the premier league and frankly, again not much will change.
The fact is quite rightly scotland, ireland and wales want their own teams, so they can compete, theres far smaller countries than wales and scotland with their own teams so its ridiculous for Fifa to push us to be one team for the world cup.
Why can't they get together, speak with Fifa tell them they are doing a GB team for the olympics, and won't even consider a unified team for anything else. how hard is it, they've been complaining about this for as long as i can remember.
ALso yes, i think when football is what I'd consider "our" national sport in Great britian, not putting out a team when we host the damn olympics, because we can't just sort this out, is a joke.
theres nothing being talked about merging leagues, it would become a joke because there is a lot of football teams out there across the leagues. bringing two spl teams across is barely being discussed, merging dozens of teams is not even an option.
So the fact is the new "gb" manager is still going to choose most of his players from the premier league and frankly, again not much will change.
The fact is quite rightly scotland, ireland and wales want their own teams, so they can compete, theres far smaller countries than wales and scotland with their own teams so its ridiculous for Fifa to push us to be one team for the world cup.
Why can't they get together, speak with Fifa tell them they are doing a GB team for the olympics, and won't even consider a unified team for anything else. how hard is it, they've been complaining about this for as long as i can remember.
ALso yes, i think when football is what I'd consider "our" national sport in Great britian, not putting out a team when we host the damn olympics, because we can't just sort this out, is a joke.
Well if you think like this you will never ascend from mediocrety
My mistake. Deleted.
Last edited:
My mistake i am not sure what you are saying. or maybe i am
Soldato
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He's quite right, however pedantic it may be.
Northern Ireland is not part of Great Britain, however it is part of the UK. To put it in the proper term - "The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland".
That does NOT include Southern Ireland - Ireland - Eire - or whatever you want to call it, which is an independent Country in itself.x
Northern Ireland - the ******* child of Britain.
Mountain out of a molehill if you ask me. There is absolutely no harm in fielding a GB/UK team for just the olympics. If anything, it will prove to be a very interesting experiement. Whether we have a single unified team for the olympics has absolutely no bearing on the single state teams who play in the world-cup; you would have a very, very hard time getting each team to give up their independent traditions in search for the cup.
Likewise, I also think it would be nice to set the olympics apart from the World Cup somehow, else it would feel cheap. A unified team for the olympics only would solve this problem quite happily.
Finally, a unified team may actually go a long way (or not) to helping bridge the divide that exists between Scotland/Wales/England when it does come to traditional international football.
I still recall Euro 96 and other World Cup bids where I backed our 'home' teams. Call it small man syndrome or whatever, but when England don't do so well - the English tend to back the Scots, but when the Scots don't do so well, they wish failure on the English (generalisation I know). I've since given up backing the Scots internationals if that's how most of the vocal fans feel. Instead if England go out, I now back the likes of Australia (if they've managed to qualify), Holland, and Sweden as I tend to enjoy their football.
There are too many prejudices and politics surrounding football on our island, especially when it comes to international games. Team GB for the olympics, sure but merging them in terms of independant internationals - never going to happen.
Likewise, I also think it would be nice to set the olympics apart from the World Cup somehow, else it would feel cheap. A unified team for the olympics only would solve this problem quite happily.
Finally, a unified team may actually go a long way (or not) to helping bridge the divide that exists between Scotland/Wales/England when it does come to traditional international football.
I still recall Euro 96 and other World Cup bids where I backed our 'home' teams. Call it small man syndrome or whatever, but when England don't do so well - the English tend to back the Scots, but when the Scots don't do so well, they wish failure on the English (generalisation I know). I've since given up backing the Scots internationals if that's how most of the vocal fans feel. Instead if England go out, I now back the likes of Australia (if they've managed to qualify), Holland, and Sweden as I tend to enjoy their football.
There are too many prejudices and politics surrounding football on our island, especially when it comes to international games. Team GB for the olympics, sure but merging them in terms of independant internationals - never going to happen.
It sets a precedent though which would make it harder to justify our special status. It would certainly raise question marks over out voiting rights and would play into FIFA's hands as they look to reduce the number of European qualification spots for the World Cup. Also the UK as a whole has 20 spots for European competitions, 13 more than the next country - how can we justify that? Would the English be happy with 1 Champions League spot?
Sepp Blatter (the head of FIFA) has said that a GB team would probably set the ball rolling for the abolition of the special status we hold, and has advised the Norn Irish, Scottish and Welsh to stay out of a GB team for their own sakes.
That's enough reason for them to stay out of this.
That's enough reason for them to stay out of this.
Soldato
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Not true according to this guy
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/mihirbose/2009/05/political_football.htmlMihir Bose - BBC sports editor said:
But who really trusts Blatter anyway?
He's given mixed messages over the years, plus as you say who would trust him and secondly, he's not in a position to make a long term guarantee with the likes of Jack Warner waiting for him to stand down.
Blatter and Platini would love nothing better than an excuse to reduce the British influence in world football.
As everyone in the world knows UK football is where it is at.
People from all over the world watch and admire the prem league, and these guys hate that, IMO they hate the brits because they owe us.
As everyone in the world knows UK football is where it is at.
People from all over the world watch and admire the prem league, and these guys hate that, IMO they hate the brits because they owe us.
Man of Honour
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Wales and NI aren't countries. Wales is a principality and NI is a province.
To be honest, it probably couldn't hurt to get rid of the Welsh team. They never get anywhere anyway! 
Imagine if Giggs had played for England back in his prime.
But yeah, the Welsh and sports - I better shut up now or I'll have the noisey buggers hunting me down.
Imagine if Giggs had played for England back in his prime.
But yeah, the Welsh and sports - I better shut up now or I'll have the noisey buggers hunting me down.