Even for Olympic Soccer, Uniting Britain May Be Tough
But there are several problems. For one thing, there is no such thing as a British soccer team. Instead, in a country where devotion to sports is fueled by ferocious regional and political rivalries, there are instead individual teams representing Britain’s fractious, proud and fiercely competitive constituent nations — namely England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Nor are the hypersensitive soccer federations in the non-English nations exactly clamoring to have their players compete side by side with players from their bitter rival, England. Although they have promised not to stop their players from participating, they have refused to officially sanction the idea of a national team and are actively discouraging anyone from joining it. So angry were the Scots, Welsh and Northern Irish at the British Olympic Association’s proud announcement in June that it had reached an “historic agreement” to field men’s and women’s soccer teams in 2012 — Team GB, each will be called — that they responded with a proud announcement of their own. The associations “reiterate our <a href="http://www.ecigs-store.com/"><strong>electronic cigarettes</strong></a> collective opposition to Team GB participation at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, contrary to the media release issued by the British Olympic Association,” their statement said. The issue is simple, as Stewart Regan, chief executive of the Scottish soccer federation, explained at the time. “We need to protect our identity, and we have no interest in taking part,” he said. Still, the Football Association, as England’s soccer federation is known, plans to go ahead and organize Team GB anyway, knowing that the only way to satisfy its non-English counterparts would be to choose no one from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. “With the Olympics in Britain, and football being our national sport, we feel it would be an awful travesty if there were no football team in it from these shores,” said Scott Field, an F.A. spokesman. “It’s like Canada not having an ice hockey team in the Winter Olympics.” Modern soccer began here in 1863. Through the influence of Britain’s far-flung empire, it spread to become the world’s most popular sport. But Britain has not played men’s soccer in the Olympics in more than half a century, <a href="http://www.ecigs-store.com/supertanker-002-p-23.html"><strong>smokeless cigarettes</strong></a> since the 1960 Rome Games, or even tried to qualify since the early 1970s. The British women have never entered a team since the Olympic tournament for women began in 1996. While the International Olympic committee recognizes Britain as a combined team in all sports, FIFA, soccer’s world governing body, recognizes England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as separate teams. And there lies the heart of the controversy. Soccer officials from the three smaller nations fear that merging a team for the Olympics could pave the way for FIFA to follow suit, forcing Britain’s teams to combine into one entry for soccer tournaments like the World Cup and the European Championships. There is a worry, too, that the nations would lose their individual seats on the committee that determines international soccer’s bylaws. FIFA has given public assurances that it will still allow all four nations to compete separately apart from the Olympics, but its pledge has failed to convince everyone. It is sometimes hard for outsiders to comprehend how deeply tribal Britain is, and how resistant to the idea that there is a unifying notion of Britishness. Wales and Northern Ireland have separate legislative assemblies. And Scotland has its own parliament, now controlled by the Scottish National Party, whose ultimate goal is national independence. The rivalry between Scotland and England in particular runs so deep that <a href="http://www.rosettastonesoftware-online.com/rosetta-stone-version-3-german-level-12-3-set-for-windows-p-5745.html"><strong>rosetta stone german</strong></a> when England competes in the World Cup, many Scots employ a position of “anyone but England,” actively rooting for England’s opponents, whoever they are. The soccer associations appear to have no legal right to prevent their players from participating in the Olympics, and have said they will not retaliate against those who do. But they are openly discouraging them.
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