Old Firm managers divided over Olympics

CELTIC manager Neil Lennon has voiced his concern over the potential damage to his club’s European ambitions next season if any of his players are called up for Olympic duty by Team GB coach Stuart Pearce.

James Forrest, the young winger who has thrived under Lennon’s guidance this season, yesterday became the latest member of the Scotland squad to express his willingness to wear the Great Britain shirt at the 2012 Olympic Games football tournament.

Forrest’s declaration came just 24 hours after Rangers forward Steven Naismith had revealed he would make himself available for selection, while last week QPR’s Scotland striker Jamie Mackie became the first member of Craig Levein’s squad to publicly voice his desire to take part in the Olympics.

The SFA remain firmly opposed to any of their players being part of the Team GB sides in either the Men’s or Women’s Olympic tournaments as they seek to avoid any dilution of Scotland’s independent status within Fifa. But the governing body have accepted they cannot legally prevent any Scottish player from accepting a Team GB call-up.

Celtic boss Lennon has several of his current first team squad who would be candidates for Pearce’s squad, which will be mainly composed of under-23s but also contain three over-age players. In addition to 20-year-old Forrest, teenage Welsh international full-back Adam Matthews and 23-year-old English striker Gary Hooper could all be in contention for Team GB duty.

While Lennon has no desire to deny any of his players the opportunity of becoming Olympians if they want to take part, he revealed he may be forced to take a hard line in order to protect Celtic’s hopes of Champions League football next season.

The Olympic Games football tournament will run from 25 July to 11 August. Assuming the Old Firm fill the top two SPL places this season, it means that any Celtic or Rangers players in the Team GB squad would miss both legs of their clubs’ third qualifying round ties in the Champions League which are due to take place on 31 July and 7 August. “I wouldn’t want to stop my players from going but I would be concerned about it,” said Lennon. “Certainly, if we were involved in Europe at that time, I would be even more reluctant to let them go.”

Lennon also questioned the relevance and credibility of the Olympic Games football tournament which Great Britain have not taken part in since 1972.

“I’m not a big lover of the idea of football at the Olympics anyway,” he added. “It’s my personal opinion that we have enough tournaments going on the whole year round in our game without needing to have football as an Olympic sport. When they brought the Olympics back as a modern event in 1896, it wasn’t for professional football.

“So I’m not too sure how it would resonate in the world of football if you win the Olympics but I just don’t think it’s a great idea.”

But Forrest, who was rewarded for his fine recent form when he was named Clydesdale Bank SPL Young Player of the Month for November yesterday, is enthused by the prospect of taking part in the London games.

“It would be a great honour for me, especially when I see some of the players that are being talked about for it,” said Forrest. “It would be really good to be part of it.

“There are a lot of good players who could be picked for it.

“There would be no guarantees, obviously, that I would get picked for it. But if any Scottish player did, then it would be really good and we would see what we could do.

“I think if it is a Team GB then it should be fair and divided between all the countries.”

Forrest added that he was unaware of any advice from the SFA against accepting a call-up to the Team GB squad.

“Nobody has spoken to us about it,” he added.

“If any of the Scotland players did get picked, they would have to really consider it. I think most of the boys would want to play in it.

“No Scotland player is guaranteed to be picked, so we would just have to wait and see if anyone does.

“It has been all over the media about English and Welsh players playing in it, but nothing really about Scotland.” STEPHEN HALLIDAY

‘I would have been 100 per cent in favour of playing for Team GB in my day’ says McCoist

HE IS the fifth highest goalscorer in Scotland’s history but Ally McCoist yesterday said he backed Steven Naismith’s decision to make himself available for selection for a combined Great Britain team in the Olympics next summer.

McCoist’s claim that he would have loved the opportunity to play in the Olympics has delivered another blow to the Scottish Football Association. When it comes to Scotland, McCoist has been there and done it. He earned 61 caps and scored 19 goals for his country. Few could possibly question his commitment to Scotland.

He sustained a career-damaging broken leg while playing for Scotland in a World Cup qualifier against Portugal in Lisbon in 1993. McCoist battled back and helped Scotland qualify for Euro 96, during which he scored a memorable winner in a 1-0 victory over Switzerland at Villa Park.

McCoist admits that proof that a combined GB team would threaten Scotland’s independence as a football nation would make him think again. But at present he cannot see any reason to fear such an extreme reaction from Fifa.

“There was no-one prouder of playing for Scotland than me – believe me,” he said yesterday. “So I would obviously hope there would be no problems with the sovereignty issue.

“I just think a combined British team is the way the Olympics operate. I would not see a problem in that at all. It would contradict the expansion in the number of countries in Fifa over the past 25 years or so, with the likes of Estonia, Latvia and many more. It would contradict that to put four nations [England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland] into one. So I wouldn’t see it as a massive problem at all.”

Seven months before the games begin the debate has already become a long and tortured one but will doubtless intensify further in the weeks ahead. The message from McCoist yesterday was that he “just cannot see any argument at all against a player wanting to play in the Olympics”. Rather, he suggested, the players who do not want to play are the ones who should be taken to task. He would, he said, question the ambition of anyone not eager to hear from Stuart Pearce, the recently appointed Team GB manager.

“The only thing we’re talking about is does it become a problem in terms of having England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland?” he said. “I can understand [the opposition] it if it did come to that.

“But I would think a player has a problem if he doesn’t want to play in the Olympics, because it would mean they have no ambition,” he added. “I would look at it the complete opposite way.”

On a programme aired by Rangers TV earlier this week Naismith openly declared that he would like to play for Team GB, in doing so breaking ranks from the SFA’s long-held stance of vehement opposition to the idea of a hybrid side at the 2012 Games. Dorking-born Scotland striker James Mackie last week said it would be “amazing” to be involved and it was possible to trace the excitement in McCoist’s own voice as he imagined competing in the Olympics.

The Rangers manager appeared in all three Scotland games in Italia 90 and played in the European Championships. He also tasted the Champions League. These events, he accepts, are pinnacles when it comes to a footballer’s career. But he hoped no-one would stand in the way of a young footballer wishing to sample what he described as a “worldwide sporting extravaganza”. He said he would have been “100 per cent” in favour of playing for Team GB if the chance had arisen in his day.

“I’d have loved to have played in the Olympics, as would anyone who has aspirations and hopes of competing at the top level,” he said. “Twenty years ago, you wouldn’t have seen [Rafael] Nadal or [Pete] Sampras involved in the tennis. But these guys now want to play in it.

“The Olympics is no longer the pinnacle of amateur sport, that’s a different argument. But, in some eyes, it is the pinnacle of sport. Without doubt the World Cup is the top. It’s a football tournament. The Olympics is a worldwide sporting extravaganza of different athletes. They are obviously different.”

There are, though, complications, and McCoist admits his tune might change if a call-up for Naismith, or any other of his players, impacts on preparations for a crucial Champions League qualifying tie. “You can open a can of worms here,” he said. “It’s a dilemma. But there is no way I’d be critical of Steven Naismith for having an opinion that I would totally agree with as a player.”

Rangers midfielder Steven Davis can also understand why players want to represent Team GB. Davis, who is 26, does not believe it is a decision he will have to make himself but can fully appreciate why those likely to be involved would be tempted by the opportunity. The Northern Irishman said: “I don’t think it’s something I really have to worry about. It’s not something I’ve given too much thought to. But I can see the appeal in terms of players wanting to do that because it’s a massive stage to go out and try to perform on. It’s a worldwide competition and a great platform to experience. I wouldn’t judge anybody who wanted to play in it.” ALAN PATTULLO