DAVID Will, the former Fifa vice-president, has dismissed as an irrelevance reports that a Great Britain football team for the 2012 Olympic Games in London will be formally approved this weekend and has urged the SFA to remain firmly against the idea.
Fifa's executive committee are meeting in Tokyo on Friday and Saturday with the criteria for participation in the Olympic football tournament one of the items on their agenda.
Despite strident and consistent opposition from the SFA and their count
erparts in Wales and Northern Ireland, there remains a determination on the part of the British Olympic Association and the English FA to field a team at the 2012 Games.
A Fifa source yesterday said: "The executive committee are certain to rule in favour of a Great Britain team, but only for London 2012, not beyond."
There is nothing in the current Fifa statutes directly relating to a GB team taking part in the Olympics, something which has not happened since the 1960 Games.
Will, an honorary vice-president of the SFA who retired as a Fifa vice-president last year, insists the 24-man executive committee would only have to take significant action on the issue if they received a unified approach from the home nations.
"This does not make one whit of difference to the stance of the three associations who are opposed to a Great Britain team in the Olympics," Will told The Scotsman. "They are not obliged to take part, no matter what form of approval Fifa give to it, and I am sure they won't take part.
"I remain completely supportive of the SFA's stance on this. It would set a very dangerous precedent to allow Scottish players to be involved in a GB football team at the Olympics.
"To my mind, Fifa would only have a decision to make on this issue if all four British associations approached them for permission to field a unified team at the Olympics. That is the only scenario where they would be required to formally approve a team. But that is not the case, because England are the only association interested."
Sepp Blatter, the Fifa president, has previously admitted a unified GB team at the Olympics could see the historic independence of the four British associations seriously questioned for other competitions in the future. He has also suggested a GB team taking part solely made up of English players would be acceptable.
Jack Warner, head of the Trinidad and Tobago FA and a current Fifa vice-president, is among those opposed to the unique position of Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland in fielding national teams despite not being independent countries.
Yesterday, Warner was quoted as saying: "I remain open on this matter". But Will and many other seasoned observers of Fifa's internal politics have no doubt Warner could use a unified GB team at the Olympics to re-ignite a campaign which would place Scotland's independent footballing status at risk.
Jim Murphy, the secretary of state for Scotland, recently urged the SFA to embrace a GB team for 2012, claiming he had assurances from Fifa general secretary Jerome Valcke that it would not threaten the separate identities of the four nations.
George Peat, the SFA president, stressed last night that no pronouncement from Fifa this weekend will persuade him that Scottish players should be part of a GB team at the London Olympics.
"Absolutely not, there is no chance of us taking part in any shape or form," said Peat. "We are adamant about this, as are the Welsh and Irish FAs.
"Personally, I'd prefer it if the English FA were the same, because I think going ahead with a GB team in any form, even with only English players, won't do our case any good."
The full article contains 642 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
