'We won't budge on Team GB' say Wales

Published on Thursday 2 October 2008 21:49

THE Scottish Football Association's steadfast opposition to joining a united Great Britain football team for the 2012 Olympics in London has received renewed support from their counterparts in Wales.

Olympics chief Lord Coe this week was reported to have claimed there will be a British side at the 2012 Games – whether Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland like it or not.

However, Welsh FA secretary David Collins insisted: "We're not for budging on this, it's as simple as that. We have taken a decision to have nothing to do with a GB United side and that remains the case.

"To be honest, any pressure that is being brought to bear seems to be coming only from London.

"I can understand, on the back of the huge GB success in Beijing, the banging of the drums, the call for a GB soccer team for an Olympics hosted in London. If any of our players put their hand up and said they wanted to play in the Olympics, they would not be able to do it.

"They are Welsh players and we would not give them permission.

"As such, they could not play in a GB team. That has been our stance, that will continue to be our stance."

Coe's hopes for a GB team have received support from Prime Minister Gordon Brown, but the football associations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are continuing to resist the pressure because of fears they would lose their independent status within Fifa.