And of course the Daily Mail I presume consider Bradley is British through and through. Unfortunately he was born in Belgium. The Daily Mail frequently adopts these double standards to pander to its core readership. No mention in the rugby international report that Manu Tuilagi is from Samoa, or in the Paris-Nice cycling report that Wiggins was born in Ghent. In fact no criticism of Mo Farah despite the fact that he was born in Somalia. Also no mention in fact that they campaigned for Zola Budd to be fast tracked for British citizenship in 1984 so she could compete in the Los Angeles Olympics. A couple of weeks ago they were calling two Ukrainian female wrestlers 'plastic brits' despite one of them marrying a British man, and both have lived here for five years.
Though that's true, Wiggins is hardly very Belgian. He was born in Belgium while his dad was racing there, but his parents were from England and Australia and he'd moved to London by the time he was two.
What I was trying to get, at which did probably did not come across properly. was how do you determine someone is 'British'. The Daily Mail is renowned for its myopic view of the world when it suits it. They are presently attacking Yamilé Aldama because she was born in Cuba. She has lived in GB for over 11 years, her husband is a Briton, her kids were born here and she only competed for Sudan because she was basically a 'stateless' person when it came to top class athletics due to the Home Office messing her about for many years. Such subtleties of course are intentionally lost on the Daily Mail so as to pander to its core readership.
Being British is about a damn sight more than where you live and which passport you carry. If me and my family move to Karachi, build a pub and get Sky piped in and only mix with each other, living pretty much as we do here, would we be Pakistanis?
Owen Hargreaves is a prime example, born in Canada, to English and Welsh parents and moved to Germany when he was sixteen. He always thought of himself as English, despite not actually living in England(his siblings were born in Wales and England and that probably helped), but he never considered representing any other nation, as far as he's concerned he's English.
I does get you when you see Brazilians playing for Eastern European national teams, seems a bit ridiculous.
France used to be the worst; at one point anyone African qualified for them. Now it's Germany, they handpick the best players from Turkey and Poland. Also, ROI are pretty bad, nicking any Northern Irish lads who are good enough.
The worst offenders by far are Australia. Leading up to the Sydney Olympics in 2000 they scoured the former Soviet republics for elite athletes offering financial support and fast tracked citizenship.
It seems to me that nationality is not that important in athletics anyway. Yes they wear a national shirt at the major tournaments, but the achievements are individual. It has only really become an issue recently as the Lottery funding has meant there is more cash knocking about to support their training and the Olympics has left athletes hoping to capture the home country support. However, many people support the ones they like, as in golf and tennis, rather than than blindly cheering for everyone of their own nationality (although I admit that will happen in London). As for the daily mail, best left alone really.
Interesting to speculate: I could get fat and bombastic and become German! Slow and Boring - Belgium Sweaty - Scottish A coward automatically confer Italian nationality!!!!!!!! I like this game.
