THE Scottish Football Association faced a furious backlash from supporters yesterday after consenting to a plan that could allow a team to compete on behalf of Britain at the London Olympics in 2012.
The Tartan Army said it was "shocked and disgusted" that the SFA had abandoned its outright hostility to a "Team GB" football entry, while an SNP MSP broke party ranks to demand the resignation of association chief executive Gordon Smith.
Fans fea
r that the formation of a Great Britain team – even one that would be made up only of English players – will threaten the ability of the four home nations to compete independently in the World Cup and European Championships.
The SFA yesterday admitted it had held secret talks with its counterparts in England, Wales and Northern Ireland after being asked by FIFA, the world governing body for football, to "find a common solution" to the formation of a combined team for the 2012 Games.
The British Olympic Association is determined to enter a team because the Olympics are being held in London and has the backing of Prime Minister Gordon Brown. The SFA said it and the Northern Irish and Welsh football associations "completely opposed" the idea.
The SFA statement said: "However, we acknowledge that the English FA do wish to have an involvement in the 2012 Olympic football tournament as it is being held in their country. A proposal has therefore gone forward to Fifa which states that England will field a team in the 2012 Olympics made up exclusively of English players. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will not play any part."
The Association of Tartan Army Clubs plans to call a meeting in Newcastle next month of all "real football fans" from the home nations in an effort to block any team playing under the Team GB banner. Spokesman Tam Ferry said: "We are shocked and disgusted with this U-turn and apparent endorsement of a Team GB."
He said the associations' decision to remove their opposition and allow England to play as Team GB set a dangerous precedent which could "lead to the end of our identities as independent international football nations".
"The four FAs clearly fail to realise that this decision could end up costing them their positions and could be the beginning of the end of the Scottish, English, Wales and Irish FAs," he said.
Barry Robson, the Celtic and Scotland midfielder, said the team should not be called Team GB if it only contained English players. "It's not going to be a Team GB if Scotland aren't in it," he said.
The SNP claimed that "fans across the country would be cheering the move".
But Christine Grahame, an SNP MSP and chairman of the Scottish Parliament's health and sport committee, called for Mr Smith to "do the honourable thing" and resign, or be sacked.
In remarks that an SNP spokesman emphasised were a personal view, Ms Grahame said a Team GB football team threatened Scottish football and the Scottish economy.
"A GB football team competing at the London 2012 Olympics poses a direct threat to the future of the Scotland international side and the Scottish league set-up," she said.
The full article contains 539 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
