And the Olympic football sides are as amateur as it can be, they have all the players under the age of 23 apart from 3 of them, the fact is this will have no effect of the players or Wales, England, Scotland or N Ireland, or these nations in FIFA. Valleyswan there will not be 1 amateur footballer in team gb, you kid yourself if you think that this could not effect the home nations, now i personally think of myself as Welsh only, seeing the bigger picture should lead you to conclude that we must not get involved in this team, it is not just about some people waving their little union jacks for the duration of the olympic games , the bigger picture here is how over time will this affect our independence as a football nation. that is the bigger picture
Well I can see you are not for TeamGB, which means you are not for the Olympics as well, because without GB we cannot enter the Olympics full stop, we are not an independent country so there is no right to enter as Wales. I am sorry but its the pinnacle of an athlete's career to represent their country in such a competition. I should imagine that if GB wins Craig Bellamy will hold the gold medal as one of his proudest achievements in life.
So long as it doesn't impact on Wales as an independent football nation, I am for GB football. If that was not the case I would never support the idea. Wales first for me but I am also British and proud of being both.
The pinnacle of a Welsh footballers career would be to win a World Cup with the welsh national team, without a welsh national team we can not win anything as Wales, the olympics is not the pinnacle for a footballer, the athletes who are competing in the GB team do not want the footballers in the olympics because they feel that the attention will be drawn away from their efforts, you are correct the olympics and team GB hold no interest for me whatsoever,
The thing is MabonJack, you are going on about Wales national side being put at risk, but the risk is the same for England, N Ireland and Scotland, so FIFA cannot do anything to wales unless they do the same to the other home nations. Its not going to happen! They cannot amalgamate countries in FIFA willy nilly. And as for the Olympics, it has a huge interest for a great many people, and the football players chosen to play will feel the same. We can't even qualify for major championship let alone win one, if your proposal of banning Welsh players who play in the Olympics, I doubt that we could even put together a first 11 that is of sufficient quality to even win a game at international level.
Agree with Ivor. This is going to be a great opportunity to showcase Welsh football talent in particular. Our players rarely ever get a chance to showcase themselves in the finals of international tournaments - 1959 World cup, 1976 Euros - and that's it in the entire history of the FAW. Bale, Ash Williams, Joe Allen, Neil Taylor, possibly Jazz Richards ... what a great opportunity for these guys. And what a great statement for Swansea City itself if we have Ash, Joe, Neil and Jazz playing for Team GB on the Olympic stage against the best young players in the world. If there were Cardiff players and not Swansea players first and foremost the FAW would be all for this.
If we lose our independance the english will as the biggest constituent country run the show, thats why they dont give a toss about the other 3 nations, and they will amalgamate the british nations it will only take a vote and there are plenty in FIFA looking forward to that happening, and whether we qualify or not we are still Wales an independent footballing nation,
dont be a party pooper marbon, team GB i hope will be in every olympic just like we have the British lions in rugby. Its absolutely fantastic that we are involved......and there is nothing anyone can do about it....it a recognized official team now and long may it reign, its long over due at the olympics... bellers is one of the nicest people you could ever meet and is a legend in my eyes...
I simply cannot see the risk you are implying here, the FAs in Wales, N Ireland, and Scotland haven't officially sanctioned anything, the players have nothing to do with them in regards to the Olympics, basically it has nothing to do with them. I would love to see how you expect them to be punished for not abiding by the FAW, they are not employed by them, they owe nothing to them, they will play in the Olympics. As mentioned by Ivor if it doesn't effect Wales, which it won't, there is no problem. Myself I can't wait for proceedings to get underway, I went to Greece to watch some events, and I am going to London to watch what I can, I have tickets and place to stay.
Dai firstly the British lions is very different, we are one of the leading nations, in world rugby take Wales,Scotland,Ireland and the english out of the equation and its ****ed, that leaves you with the southern hemisphere and france and thats it, so they would not amalgamate the four home nations. Now lets get back to the wonderfull team GB, firstly it is not recognised by the FAW,SFA,FAI, its only the english who recognise it, and as we are Welsh and all football is administered by the FAW, it is not officially recognised by Wales or its players, the question then is this, any player who is registered with the FAW, and that includes all Welsh international footballers are not officially authorised to play for the seb coe all star 11. thems the rules dai, and you will find a copy within the FIFA Statutes in geneva.
There is no evidence to suggest that the independence of Wales as a footballing nation is being put at risk by Team GB. Absolute bollox. Parochial views that steep through our nation will be its undoing unless we embrace the wider world. No wonder nobody's heard of us. Yes, "let's blame the English" for everything. Really gets my ****ing goat. What the **** is wrong with being proud to be British as well as Welsh? I know I am.
mabon ...its happeng mate its all done and dusted there will be a Team GB in the olympics with welsh players involved..so thats it then no more Wales,and England team in the future, Dont be daft man it wont happen...
Well in that case MabonJack, ban them all from playing for Wales then, I think you will find that people will see the FAW for the bigger joke than what they are now! This competition is not sanctioned by FIFA, GB is not recognised by FIFA as a country, they are not actually playing in an international game according to FIFA rules. As mentioned previously all the FAs involved would not accept amalgamation and FIFA will not be able to do that in any case, tell me of one instance apart from the germany east west this has been done, and that was done as the countries politically merged.
Valley if the executive committee at FIFA receive a request from a member country that they wish to carry out a vote to re evaluate the status of the 4 home nations as member countries of FIFA, they only need support from another country and a vote will take place, we are only 4 countries within FIFA because all the home nations stopped FIFA from going bankrupt in the early 60s, and our reward was to make us 4 seperate and independent nations within world football. The African and carribean nations within FIFA are against this because we hold all the power in major committees in FIFA, eg law making within the game. And they want a peice of the action themselves. Now it was no accident that england had only 2 votes when they tried to get the 2018 world cup, the celtic nations have been warned by no less than sepp blatter himself that they would not be wise to get involved in the olympic football team, his words were " let england play on their own", and there has not been any attempt by FIFA to provide any written gaurantees to the celtic nations that they would remain independent if they got involved in tean gb, because they can't give them, because when blatter goes and a new president is elected he may well change the FIFA statutes and force a vote at FIFA to ensure that there is only 1 british fa, that is why the celtic nations do not want anything to do with this olympic team, because if they do, they will set a precedence, join forces and play once and you can join forces permanently. That is it in a nutshell
Valley they are playing under the auspices of the English fa, who have been asked by the BOC to organise and run the team gb football team, now they are effectively playing for the english fa under the team gb banner, as you are aware the other countries on this island are not involved and do not recognise the olympic football team, All football is run by FIFA that is the reason that sepp blatter is a member of the IOC, football is an olympic sport and he represents FIFA on the IOC.
Good for Bellamy - it's great that he's up for it. I hope as many Welsh players as possible get the shout. I really don't agree that it will affect the home nations individuality - the home nations wouldn't stand for it irrelevant of anything else. I mean, we are Swansea - a Welsh team in the English League..... We have no issues with that do we ?
Mabon. Out of interest what do you think of Wales(and the other home nations) selecting non Welsh and in particular Englishmen. IE Ashley Williams , Jack Collison , Steve Morrison and im sure Ben Turner will be approached soon. Surely this taking advantage of us all being British citizens is just as likely to wind FIFA up. Or do you accept Englishmen representing Wales as lets face it we need them.
You've said it yourself MabonJack, the FAs don't recognise teamGB, so if they don't recognise that is up to them, what they cannot do is tell players they cannot play in a competition they don't recognise, and FIFA does not sanction the games as it does not come under their remit, the games come under the IOC. I am sorry mate I am for the games, and I am for teamGB as I am British, when I travel abroad I do it under a British passport, I spend British Pounds, I vote in the British elections, I am British, and unless I am sadly mistaken so are you. I am also Welsh, I was born here, my parents are both Welsh, I speak Welsh, my kids speak Welsh, I am proud to be Welsh, as much as I am proud to be British.
Hilts Personally i would prefer the welsh team to be full of welsh born and bred, if an englishman has a welsh grandfather and he choses to play for Wales he has welsh blood and as long as he gives 100% for the red shirt of Wales i will give him total support, now if he just wants to play for Wales because he has lived here for 3 years, and uses that route to say he is an international player, just because he can well no thanks. I personally see the countries on this island as four seperate nations, We dont play as GB at anytime if the olympics were in another country they would not give a toss about it,
