SFA to decide today on British Olympic football team

Published on Tuesday 26 May 2009 23:06

THE Scottish Football Association will today decide on the way forward with the football associations of Northern Ireland and Wales after further talks yesterday on the issue of a Team GB football team competing at the 2012 Olympics.

Anger was expressed during an SFA board meeting yesterday after remarks made last week by FA chairman Lord Triesman. He broke a confidentiality clause to reveal that all four associations were "very close" to agreeing that the FA would organise a team for the London Games, with the women's and men's teams containing English players only.

This represents something of an about-turn for Scotland, who had been steadfastly opposed to the concept of Team GB, whatever its form. Pressure has been applied by Fifa, who has given the four home associations until the end of this month to come to a consensus over the issue after months of talks. But the agreement reached last week has now been put in jeopardy by Triesman's comments. This was made clear during yesterday's board meeting at Hampden.

SFA spokesman Rob Shorthouse described the proposal of an all-English GB side as a "tough sell" when put to the board, particularly after Triesman's premature comments. "We agreed on strict confidentiality and he's broken it," he said. "We were annoyed by the breach of confidentiality but the important thing is to get the issue sorted."

Earlier, Shorthouse had explained the FA's proposal: "They made a 'turn a blind eye' proposal which meant letting the FA organise Team GB and nobody else having anything to do with it. Our president, George Peat, has already said he's opposed to that idea but we said we'd take it back to the board."

The SFA, and their Welsh and Nothern Ireland counterparts, have been against Team GB because they fear it could result in them losing their individual voting rights within Fifa. But the SFA believes such "intransigence" may be harming them politically. "The worry is, by just saying 'no' all the time, we're doing ourselves a bit of damage internationally," Shorthouse said.