Team GB looks likely...

There is an excellent post on the BBC by Mihir Bose on the decision for there to be a British football team at the 2012 Olympics. I certainly did not know the background to this debate. Bose makes a good point when he points to the unique privileges afforded the home nations; this combined with a nationalist sentiment prominent in Scotland in particular and in Wales, to a lesser extent, has led to a roadblock of what might still be quite an exciting project.

It is a situation which I find exasperating though. It’s a shame that there can’t be a genuine British football team, on a similar basis to that of the Lions Rugby Union team. There is no debate I have come across about the extent to which a Lions rugby tour erodes our sense of national identity.

Indeed there is so much, in my view, that football could learn from rugby union. Simply at a pragmatic level, the world of football is so reluctant to embrace new technology. Florent Malouda’s goal from the FA cup final is a case in point, video/goal line technology would assist referees and their assistants no end. We are reluctant to amend current regulations sensibly, the fact that someone could be sent off for taking their shirt off is beyond me. Of course there are a lot of positive goings on at the top end of football, but I certainly believe that they could be humble enough to learn from best practice achieved elsewhere and I hope that there may yet be hope for a genuine British football team to take part in the 2012 Olympics.

That’s it. Rant over.