Team GB

[Spy]

Ben am I the one being thick or does your idea not make sense?

[jonny72]

Football should not be an Olympic sport for the simple reason that winning the Olympic Gold medal in football is not the pinnacle of the sport, in fact it means fuck all.

Maybe not to you and me, but in some countries the Olympic football tournament is up there with the World Cup.

[Spy]

Maybe not to you and me, but in some countries the Olympic football tournament is up there with the World Cup.

Yeah countrys too shit at football to ever win or get anywhere near winning a world cup.

[Rich Pullen]

Maybe not to you and me, but in some countries the Olympic football tournament is up there with the World Cup.

The Italians (15 times - 3 medals) and USA (14 times - 1 medal) have entered their teams the most.

Looking at the table of entries for mens football at the Olympics... It doesn't really support jonnys statement - except the Brazilians who do take it seriously, probably because it should be a medal (even they've failed to qualify in recent history)

[Ƭ̵̬̊: The Artist Formerly Known as CWIG]

At the end of the day professional footballs world competition is the world cup and it recognises that England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are separate FAs and separate countries so all this preserve our independence malarkey seems like a load of shit the sweaties thought up, because they don’t want to be associated with us at all….Sepp Blatter has already encouraged a team at the Olympics and said that it wont have any impact on the four home nations being independent.

The Olympics, in which we compete under Great Britain, hosts a football tournament for teams with squads of under 23 with a couple of overage players allowed. This is completely separate and has absolutely fuck all to do with the world cup or how we run our home nations in professional football. The argument is about as valid as the British and Irish Lions jeopardising the independence of our Rugby Union sides.

The team should be picked on merit of the best players all four countries have to offer that our under 23….if you don’t want to play, pull out, simple as that. Give the job to a respected former manager who is perhaps finished but would entertain the idea of a one off job, someone like Sir Bobby Robson.

The problem certain people….mainly the Scottish, have, is that if a side is picked on merit, with no rules on a minimum number of players from each country, that the squad would be 90% english, but if the team was picked tomorrow there would be plenty of non-english contenders for the squad. I can’t think of a better under 23 British left back than Gareth Bale and I think Johnny Evans would be a serious contender for captain.

[BANGKOK RED]

I didn't realise it was only under 23's.

In which case it could be a great thing as some fringe players will get international matches.