יום שבת, 16 ביולי 2011

Team GB shirt not a neat fit for Scots

Some Scottish football fans may be asking what is it that the British Olympic Association doesn't get when it comes to a GB football team.

Their announcement that an "historic agreement" had been reached allowing footballers from all the home nations to play for Team GB at the London 2012 Olympic Games has caused uproar among the Tartan Army.

The majority of Scottish football fans appear not to want to be part of a Team GB.

Simples, as the meerkats say.

Many will argue that we compete in the Olympics under the GB banner in other events, but when it comes to football, the BOA is, I suspect, about to become acquainted with hidden depths of feelings they never realised existed.

Why? Well, the national football team always has been a source of pride and self-expression for the vast bulk of Scots.

Sometimes there is no logical or rational reasoning for why something is done in a certain way, but many Scottish football fans will say, that still doesn't make it the wrong way.

And, anyway, they will tell you that there is a very good reason why Scotland don't compete as Team GB when it comes to football.

They will tell you that, if Scotland did, it would be all the excuse some within the Fifa family would need to try to strip Scotland of her unique position as a separate footballing entity.

Someone once described Scotland as being a bit like the Vatican City: a state within a state.

But, whatever the truth of the matter, for Scottish fans it appears to mainly be a state within a state of mind when it comes to football.

The BOA may wish it were otherwise, but for the bulk of football followers, Scotland does not equate to England and does not equal Team GB.

Scotland is Scotland on the football field, they will tell you, and that is the end of it.

From the wonder of the Wembley Wizards, to the swaggering insouciance of Baxter, Law and Johnstone as they demolished Alf Ramsey's World Cup Willie's, Scots have a picture in their minds of what it means to play for Scotland at football.

And that picture, for the majority of Scottish fans, doesn't feature Scots in a Team GB shirt.

The Scottish Football Association has made its opposition crystal clear on the matter.

George Peat, the outgoing president of the SFA, has had his critics, but his statement on this issue probably echoes the views of most Scottish football fans.

He said: "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."

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/jimspence/2011/06/team_gb_shirt_not_a_neat_fit_f.html

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