THE ARCHIVE
Politics
Best of British | Best of British |
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“GB Bid needs Olympic team” screamed the BBC website headline, followed by an urgent appeal for the formation of a British football team for the 2012 London Olympic Games. The date? August, 2003. “Can you imagine”, suggested a bamboozled Craig Reedie, British Olympic Association (BOA) chairman, “running an Olympic Games in Britain without a British football team?” The answer then, and now, is yes. The Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish FAs have long been opposed to the creation of a GB XI. Britain has not appeared in the Olympic football finals since 1960 and the last qualifying ties played by a unified side were back in 1971 when a team largely comprised of Isthmian League players beat Bulgaria 1-0 at Wembley and lost the return 5-0. The fact that a GB football team was being presented as a fait accompli two years ago shows the determination of the London lobbyists for the game to fall into line with their glittering vision of 2012.
The men and women in cream suits who danced around their tables in Singapore are not a group of Corinthian custodians of the Olympic ideals. They are gleaned from the upper echelons of consultancies, public relations and other lines of business. Brought in to deliver the Games against the background of the Iraq invasion they did an impressive job. Yet that mixture of gusto, arm-twisting and slick salesmanship should have been left in Singapore, its aim spectacularly achieved. Instead it seems to have a key role in the manifestation of the Games itself. In the days after the win, the GB football team story had a whirlwind of “assisted”, coverage. Correctly deducing that the main opposition would emit from the Scottish FA, the whispering campaign began. “London bid sources said that Scotland was the only obstacle to fielding [a] British team,” explained one broadsheet reporter. Bang on cue the FA’s David Davies insisted the matter should be addressed “with urgency”. Sven-Göran Eriksson, who had been in Singapore (presumably Lawrie Sanchez’s invitation was lost in the post), popped up to state that it was “inevitable” that a home team would take part. From WSC 223 September 2005. What was happening this month On the subject...
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