Olympic football team will be British, insists Sutcliffe

A Team GB soccer side will take part in the London 2012 Olympics even if it consists entirely of English players, sports minister Gerry Sutcliffe insisted today.

The issue has become a political and sporting battleground, with the Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland football associations opposing a joint squad in case it affects the future of their independent national sides.

Mr Sutcliffe told MPs he wanted a team which had the "widest representation" from the UK, but it could be that only the Football Association in England would allow its players to compete.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said he wants to see both male and female teams playing in the 2012 games.

Mr Sutcliffe said football's international ruling body Fifa had given written assurances that a UK side in 2012 would not affect the national teams.

But he acknowledged "there has always been and will continue to be a threat to that individuality because of the way Fifa is evolving", irrespective of the 2012 issue.

Speaking in a debate at Parliament's Westminster Hall he said: "What a farce it would be to have those qualification games in Wales and Scotland without the possibility of British participation."

Asked if a purely English team would take the field if the associations in the other home nations boycotted the event, Mr Sutcliffe said: "That is correct and that is the sad fact of what is going to happen unless we can try and resolve this issue."

The debate was opened by the SNP's Pete Wishart (Perth and N Perthshire), who said participation in the "meaningless" Olympic soccer competition could jeopardise the future of the Scotland national side.

He said: "We should do absolutely nothing that would ever threaten our independent football status.

"We should never give a hint of a precedent that might be able to be used against us in the future, we should give no reason, no excuse to those who would question our independent footballing status, no succour to those who would seek to end the very generous arrangements we have in the UK."

Competing in the Olympics would risk that status for "a meaningless competition and I say it is not worthwhile".

He also claimed the Prime Minister had been leading calls for a joint team for political reasons, as part of his "Britishness agenda".

Labour's Albert Owen (Ynys Mon) accused the SNP and Plaid Cymru of pursuing a "narrow nationalist agenda" in opposing the joint team.

His fellow Labour backbencher Andrew Mackinlay (Thurrock) supported the objective of a joint team but said it was a matter for the football associations to decide and "the Government should back off".

Shadow Olympics minister Hugh Robertson questioned whether men's football was a "natural fit" in the Games, because of the higher status given to other competitions in the sport such as the World Cup.

But he said the tournament did have a greater importance in the women's game and the Paralympics.

He continued: "The sad part of this is that as things stand the athletes affected will be denied a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to compete in front of their own home crowds at the world's largest sporting event."

It was a "great shame this has become such a politically contentious issue" which had been used by the Prime Minister to make wider points about the Union, to which the SNP had reacted, Mr Robertson added.

Liberal Democrat Olympics spokesman Tom Brake backed a joint team but called for "much more solid assurances" from Fifa.

Mr Wishart argued that the situation could be remedied by allowing Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland to compete as individual teams.

This idea was backed by former Scotland manager Craig Brown, who was in Westminster Hall to watch the debate.

He said: "If there is an insistence on having UK representation, why not allow all four teams to compete?

"Football is already a special case in the Olympics because it discriminates by only allowing players under 23 to compete, so why not allow the four sides from the UK?"

Mr Brown was sceptical about the guarantees from Fifa, insisting they would see a UK side as an "opportunity to join the four nations in future competitions".