Comments on Football rankings: Team GB - what do you make of it?

@ Stuart Ha ha. I forgot all about the oil. I was...

2012-02-12T02:52:17.786+02:00

@ Stuart

Ha ha. I forgot all about the oil. I was only thinking in terms of the land mass. No one ever mentions it though, I have absolutely no idea how much cash it generates. If Scotland goes, will all the rest of the UK suffer? Surely it can't be that simple, those rigs can't be owned solely by Scots, right? They must have been built with a combined effort from the UK, they

Scotland has been bankrolling the UK for decades. ...

2012-02-11T13:59:10.132+02:00

Scotland has been bankrolling the UK for decades.

Sorry Lorric but you live in a dream world. When they conducted a report into Scotlands oil in the 60s they concluded that an independent Scotland would be one of the wealthiest countries in the world. Due to the oil it would be a safe currency so it would also have one of the strongest currencies too.

So they made the report

@ Stuart That's just speculation by you. No s...

2012-02-10T15:42:10.575+02:00

@ Stuart

That's just speculation by you. No sources. If I wanted to make money, I'd have all matches at Wembley and a 100% England side. That would attract the most tickets, bigget stadium, England, potential for Olympic tourists to attend as well if England doesn't fill the place. But England fans outnumber the rest several times over anyway, a 100% England side at Wembley

@stuart Very interesting, but as far as I've ...

2012-02-10T14:34:25.396+02:00

@stuart

Very interesting, but as far as I've read in the last 15 minutes, neither referendum is set in stone. The United Ireland referendum could even take place as late as 2021.

That is to do with ticket sales. They figure (wro...

2012-02-10T14:10:13.412+02:00

That is to do with ticket sales.

They figure (wrongly) they can sell more tickets in Cardiff and Glasgow than they would by having more games in London. Or even Manchester.

It also allows them to pretend that the games is in someway "British" and not just a London Olympics.

It also allows the government to foist even more of this "faux brittania&

@ Stuart Well, sometimes the women's game is ...

2012-02-08T00:24:01.710+02:00

@ Stuart

Well, sometimes the women's game is different. I don't know much about it anyway. But I see Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland blocking the team. Annoying. Interesting England didn't want to block it and wanted to send the team. Obviously England at least then perceived no threat to the independant status.

I thought it was just yes or no. In that case,

By your logic if the men cannot qualify for the Ol...

2012-02-07T23:06:31.836+02:00

By your logic if the men cannot qualify for the Olympics because they do not compete in the qalifiers as GB then that should mean that the same rule would apply for the women too?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/women/7127341.stm

As for the players, we'll see what they do. The FA sent a letter out to almost 200 players and are using the "if they don't

@ Stuart That article still doesn't say anyth...

2012-02-01T16:27:12.025+02:00

@ Stuart

That article still doesn't say anything about that. The gentleman's agreement is about this olympics, not the past ones. GB can't compete because GB can't qualify. I wish GB could qualify. Other associations have seperate tournaments specifically for Olympic qualification. If UEFA had one, a GB team could be fielded. But since we use the U21 Euro to qualify, it

@ A Belgian. You couldn't be more wrong if yo...

2012-02-01T12:32:36.652+02:00

@ A Belgian.

You couldn't be more wrong if you tried. Firsly it has nothing to do with which players play. In fact the rest of us want there to be a team full of English players playing. Pearce has been told to play as many non English players as he can because this has nothing to do with football. It's a cheap political stunt to force some Rule Brittania up us and to try and

Here's another example. This time it was not E...

2012-01-29T23:37:27.636+02:00

Here's another example. This time it was not England, but Scotland who were denied:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_UEFA_European_Under-21_Football_Championship#Olympic_qualifiers

Hey, the World is here, right? Does the World hate...

2012-01-29T23:25:30.760+02:00

Hey, the World is here, right? Does the World hate Lorric? You can't speak for the whole World, Stuart. Especially when you get your facts wrong.

@ Stuart You're wrong. England have qualified...

2012-01-29T23:16:13.905+02:00

@ Stuart

You're wrong. England have qualified before, but are not allowed to compete because GB competes at the Olympics, not England.

Indeed, England would have qualified for the last one in 2008, had it been allowed. There were 4 places up for grabs and England would have had one. Since they couldn't claim it, Italy and Portugal, who were 3rd in the groups had a

Well, first of all, this has received very little ...

2012-01-29T16:40:34.971+02:00

Well, first of all, this has received very little attention in the Belgian media, I only vaguely remember reading something about it more than a year ago.

Secondly, the Olympics have a tradition of "unity". In all other disciplines British athletes compete together under the Union Jack, so I don't see why this would be any different for football. As an added bonus, the

And there we have a classic example of why the who...

2012-01-28T14:01:46.766+02:00

And there we have a classic example of why the whole world dislikes the English.

@Lorric. There is no laws stopping England or any of the other home nations playing in the Olympics providing they qualify. On this occasion none of them did on merit, only via the host system.

You also appear to think of Fifa as one entity, it's not, it's a collection of all the

Lorric, go back to your armchair.

2012-01-28T01:28:30.510+02:00

Lorric, go back to your armchair.

I think it would be nice if only English players p...

2012-01-27T23:52:15.990+02:00

I think it would be nice if only English players played, opening the door for future England teams to qualify to the olympics. I doubt that would happen. I'd like to support "England" but, a true team GB would be a nice novelty. I'd be more worried about token inferior players from Scotland and Northern Ireland getting into the team, but with the real England unavailable, there

Edgar, the geo location will just show where our i...

2012-01-27T17:49:27.932+02:00

Edgar, the geo location will just show where our internet service providers are.

Murfilicious, you've bought tickets and a replica kit? Wow, you have already fallen for it. The whole Team GB farce is a money making excercise and also a way of forcing some faux brittania on the colonies.

Scotland and England have previously qualified for the Olympics but have both

Why is this an issue now? In 1948 the British Amat...

2012-01-27T17:39:08.229+02:00

Why is this an issue now? In 1948 the British Amateur XI played in the Olympics and it didn't affect anything in regard to FIFA membership. Today this would've been a British U-21 XI but the principle is the same.
However, since NI is not part of Great Britain I see no reason for them to get involved :)

In San Francisco, this topic has hit the local new...

2012-01-27T16:45:48.561+02:00

In San Francisco, this topic has hit the local newspapers twice with a matter-of-fact tone, nothiing more. Seems reasonable for England to field a team as Olympic hosts. Bigger story is possible forthcoming vote of Scotland for its own independence.

Or my traffic geolocator might be off :)

2012-01-27T14:06:01.367+02:00

Or my traffic geolocator might be off :)

London? Yikes my office must have been moved!

2012-01-27T14:03:10.796+02:00

London? Yikes my office must have been moved!

murfilicious, you're based in London, so you c...

2012-01-27T13:21:16.793+02:00

murfilicious, you're based in London, so you could be seeing things a bit differently :)

I'm Welsh and I'm in favour of Team GB bec...

2012-01-27T13:18:06.964+02:00

I'm Welsh and I'm in favour of Team GB because not only am I proud to be Welsh, I am also proud to be British! I have already purchased tickets for a game as well as a replica kit, and I know many other people who are also doing exactly the same. I don't think it will jeapordise our standing as individual football nations, epecially as the Welsh, Scottish and English FAs are amongst

The Scotland national team fans are against it. Se...

2012-01-27T12:34:15.713+02:00

The Scotland national team fans are against it. See www.noteamgb.com