Team GB In International Football?

Should we opt for a 'Team GB'

As the 2012 London Olympics come ever closer, the time is near for the selection process of our international football side to be submitted, with all the news surrounding this, it made me think should we have a team GB in international football all together. My thought on this will become clear to see as you read on...

The benefits of having a team GB are there to see, unlocking great talent such as Gareth Bale to play along the likes of John Terry and Wayne Rooney. Combining talent is a brilliant idea and potentially could give us a better chance of winning a international competition, also Great Britain can all join as one every so often and enjoy the array of talent on offer to see. England have several problems within their side which need to be ironed out, the left wing role has been an achillies heel in the England set-up for a very long time, Bale could change the squad if a team GB was actually put in motion.

But at the same time you are totally killing the history and tradition of our home nation teams, having that idenity as a seperate nation is what makes international football so special. Lets be honnest, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland have always been and always will be, for the foreseeable future the whipping boys of international football. England is the only nation of the home nations which has a strong side, and at best we are still poor compared to the likes of Spain and Brazil. Also 90% of this 'Team GB' would be English, unless some sort of rule was passed that the match squad must contain 25% of players from each home nation (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland). But in theory this would actually make our side weaker, than having our home nations. To England fans anyway, for the fans of the other three home nations its a brilliant idea if they want to see success.

Also who would hold the right to host 'Team GB' matches, all the home nation sides have national stadiums, three of which would be unused, or potentially four being rotated which would be a nightmare for the FA after spending so much money on Wembley Stadium. Just to gift the team GB home ground at Wembley Stadium would not go down well at-all with fans. A rotational system would be fair but leave the grounds empty the majority of the time, whats the point in a national stadium if you wont use it regular.

The main reason we will never see a team GB play on a wider scale other than in the Olympics is mainly due to the fans and the respecitve FAs of each nation. I personally would not want to see a team GB, the history of our home nations should be cherished and kept as it is now, you'll be effectivley erasing decades upon decades of history, be it the great, the bad or the embarassing. Nothing is greater than seeing our home nations in action against each other, the pride and passion which goes with it is fantastic, having a team GB would end all of this and for what, to get our hopes up for winning an international competition for us to bottle it in the quaters as per and oh, lose on penalties too.