National Teams
There is currently no United Kingdom national football team as separate teams compete in international competition representing England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. There are sometimes issues about which team players are eligible for (as all the players will have simply British passports), but a player is generally eligible for whichever nation he, his parents or grandparents were born in (in the case of these being different nations, then he can choose). This has been the case with some younger players such as Aiden McGeady and Jack Collison who have chosen to play for the country of their parental heritage rather than the country of their birth. Players from crown dependencies (like the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands), which are technically not in the UK are eligible for all four teams (e.g. Matt Le Tissier and Graeme Le Saux, both of whom opted for England), as are British citizens born outside the UK or its possessions (e.g. current England international Owen Hargreaves, born in Canada).
There have, however, been times when a single team has competed under a UK banner, the most noticeable being in the Summer Olympic Games where a UK team competes as one country under the name Great Britain. In the early years, the Olympic football competition was contested between amateur sides and the UK Olympic Committee agreed to let the amateur England team represent the entire UK (Thus the team was not really representative of the entire UK, but played under that banner). More recently the Olympic competition has been played by under-23s teams and the UK has not sent any representatives.
Some people, such as politician Tony Banks, have argued for the UK having just one team to represent it but all four football associations are very much against such an idea.
The issue of a UK national team came to a head starting in 2005, when the 2012 Summer Olympics were awarded to London. While The Football Association, England's federation, favoured the idea of a single UK team for 2012, the other three federations opposed the concept, with Scotland being particularly strident in its view, fearing that a single UK team would jeopardise the independent status all four Home Nations currently enjoy within FIFA. The row lasted well into 2009, with FIFA setting a deadline of 1 June 2009 for the Home Nations to come to an agreement. On 29 May, after last-ditch talks, the four associations came to an agreement, sending a letter to FIFA stating that while the Scottish, Welsh, and Northern Ireland associations still opposed the concept of a unified Team GB and would not participate in such a team, they would not prevent England from fielding a team under that banner. FIFA president Sepp Blatter officially approved the deal within days.
Read more about this topic: Football In The United Kingdom
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