UK should field a single Great Britain team permanently, instead of carrying on with England, Wales and Scotland. Scotland, Wales rarely if ever qualify for international competitions, so they are depriving their talented players the oppotunity to play tournament football, the harsh truth is that there is little point in the existance of these teams other than nationalism. The benefit for England would be that a GB team would have that bit more depth when it comes to tournament football, it is becoming more and more prevelent that Premier League players get injured, considering all the injuries England had and the lack of quality replacements, how much better would the England have been at Euro 2012 with players like Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey? These players are wasted playing for Wales, they should be playing in World cups and European Championships. Unfortunately there is too much petty nationalism which will always prevent this from ever happening
What a ridiculous answer, just criticizing without offering any explanation as to why it would be stupid. We are shooting ourselves in the foot with this one, why are we British for most other sports and then football comes around and we're supposed to hate the scots and welsh? Its really childish and unproductive.
pachead; for your first post this has to be one of the most ridiculous I've ever seen, assuming you are being serious. Such a scenario would destroy football in Northern Ireland and Wales and seriously damage it in Scotland. In the current times, the GB team would be so dominated by English players that the rest would barely get a look in. I hasten to add that I say this because England is so much bigger in population and number of professional players than the rest, not through 'little englander' arrogance! Although Wales haven't reached the finals of a major competition since the 1958 World Cup, they did reach the last eight of the Euros in 1976, before they had "finals tournaments". Scotland have played at eight World Cups, including 1974 and '78, when England failed to qualify! Northern Ireland played at the 1982 and '86 World Cups and beat hosts Spain in the 1982 competition. Before that they reached the quarter finals in 1958. Northern Irish fans will also be quick to remind us that they were the last side to win the home internationals! Although none of the non-English home nations have qualified for any major tournaments in the 21st century, you can't take away the dreams of those who follow their national side. While a number of our Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish brethren take an A-B-E attitude when England are the only home nation at a tournament [some-thing I've never understood], I always have best wishes for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in their qualifying groups for tournaments and would be delighted if all four were to qualify for the same tournament.
An important thing nobody has mentioned is that one GB side means one FA = one British league rather than the different league formats in England, Wales, Scotland. Also the Home Nations as founders of modern day football have a massive say in the rules being bought in to the game. Things like goal line technology not only have to be approved by FIFA but also the home nations. Its kind of like the Queen having to approve laws but would you give Sepp Blatter & cronies 100% power???
ATM there are four home nations, with four voices and four votes at the FIFA and UEFA Tables. Tean GB would lose three of those voices and votes. I think though, that FIFA and UEFA should both come out and say officially that a regular Team GB Olympic side will NEVER jeopodise the individual nations' integrity outside the olympic arena.
A bad move to have Team GB, either the nations are separate as four or together as one. Together as one would give really good not English players more chance. I know Scotland and Northern Ireland have been to the finals recently but Wales, not appearing since 1958. At least George Best and Ryan Giggs would have been to a World Cup finals if there had been a United kingdom team.
Tell that to the Scots and the Welsh. LOL. Lets see if they would enjoy their countries diminished even more on the World stage.
Imagine a Spanish team without Catalan or Basque players. Or a German side shorn of Bavarians. It would be ridiculous, yet that is what the four home nations do voluntarily every tournament. A unified UK team is long, long overdue.
I foresee another fiasco like the bickering and squabbling prior to the 2012 Olympics should such a proposition ever be seriously put forward. The thing is, although it is Scotland, Wales and Northern Irish players who lose out on playing international tournament football, they would rather die than line up in the same team with Englishmen and sing God Save The Queen before kick off (it's difficult enough to get the Englishmen to do that with any conviction or pride). Most of them would rather garrotte themselves on the pitch than allow that to happen. Perhaps the OP is motivated in putting this idea forward due to England's dismal performance in Brazil and the prospect of another 48 "years of hurt" (and more..!!) But I feel that, for better or worse, we are who we are and we just have to get used to the fact that England and Scotland are now third level footballing nations and Wales and Northern Ireland, whilst ranking above San Marino and Luxembourg, there isn't much in it. As for the quality players those countries produce, well, quite often it is found that the player may have been born in England or has at least one English parent, or qualifies to play for England by residency, but CHOOSES to play for Wales (ditto Scotland and Northern Ireland), in the knowledge that his team of choice is likely to fare poorly in competitive football. He could have stuck it out and chanced his arm on being selected for England, but went for the relatively soft option of being an automatic choice for the "lesser" (for want of a better word) nation. If he misses out on the big tournaments, it will probably be down to his lack of ambition and belief in his ability to rise to the top, rather than the failings of the international system. Things are unlikely to change. England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales. That's how it is, that's how I see it staying, and for some time too.
Like we had at the 2012 Olympic Games, where the Scots, Northern Irish and Welsh effectively boycotted it. Uniting the home nations would cause more bickering, in-fighting, resentment and dissent than it's worth. It would probably lead to tokenism (gotta have an Irishman, a Welshman and a Scot in the team regardless of whether they're any good or not). Where would the GBFA be based? Put it in London and the other countries would call it an English stitch up. Where would the plum internationals be played? Wembley or Windsor Park? it's a no-brainer, but tell that to the Northern Irish who would feel marginalised when they only ever got GB vs San Marino. How long would it be before the Scottish fans started complaining about having to travel to London or Cardiff to see an international match and then finding out that the Scottish players in the squad are all on the bench. I can come up with a hundred and one possible scenarios which, as petty as they may be, would soon be blown up out of all proportion by anybody with an axe to grind (and there would be many). The current state of the four home nations isn't perfect, but then again, it never was. As it stands though, it's preferable to the mess that would be created by attempting to unite four nations who simply don't want to be united. Leave well alone.
