The boot room: British football team must tread carefully in a political quagmire

The London 2012 Olympics has left football in a political quagmire. While Fifa continues to acknowledge the individual nations of Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and England, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) only sees the collective Great Britain. Throw a kick-about into next summer's games and you have just unwittingly threatened the future sporting autonomy of the four home nations — with many fearing a Fifa merger off the back of next year's predicted Olympic success. Add to that players who don't mind foregoing nationalistic pride for the sake of furthering their own ambitions and you have a sticking point indeed. A funny lot, most Brits definitely don't consider themselves European, or even British when it comes to it, but they confine themselves to the nearest borders. On a national scale you're either north or south and in metropolitan terms you're either red or blue. You only come together in the weeks when the domestic league is off to cheer your respective nation. Cornwall has its own flag and language and Teesside is also known as the People's Republic. If an Englishman's home is his castle, the walls are very much crumbling. It's even more fragmented north of the border where predominately Protestant Rangers fans would back Britain before Scotland, whereas some Celtic, mostly Catholic, supporters will back Ireland before Scotland, purely on religious leanings. So the suggestion of a unified British football team has — rightly or wrongly — been met with cautious reservation from seemingly all except Whitehall's idealists. Ignoring the fact that in Scotland not so long ago, Catholic players such as Celtic's Neil Lennon received bullets through the post for representing the Northern Irish national team, the notion of a Northern Irish player representing ‘The Crown' would be perhaps a tad more controversial. Names mentioned So far only Welsh players Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey have had their names bandied around as potential non-English participants after being pictured in Great Britain kits. Scotland's Charlie Adam and Darren Fletcher have also been suggested, but it's believed public opposition and fear of backlash from the minority will steer them well away. Fifa has spoken to quell the threat of the four teams losing their sporting independence, but with no one guaranteeing against the prospect, opposition mounts. You get the feeling that even if the footballing future of the home nations was assured, respective nationalists would oppose a collective just for the sake of it. Politics sadly dictates the game.