Exclusive: FIFA letter guaranteeing independence makes no difference to Team GB opponents

By Andrew Warshaw

May 3 – The three British Football Associations refusing to take part in next year’s Olympic Games look set to continue their boycott despite a written guarantee from FIFA that a unified team will not affect their individual independence.

Insideworldfootball has learned that a letter sent to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland by FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke promising that London 2012 would be a one-off in terms of an all-British team will make no difference and will not in any way change entrenched positions.

In March, Britain’s new FIFA vice-president, Northern Ireland’s Jim Boyce, revealed toinsidethegames that he would be happy – but only if formally requested to do so – to lobby FIFA on behalf of the three rebel Associations who fear that taking part in a unified team would utlimately lead to them losing their individual status within world football.

But in an exclusive interview with insideworldfootball, Boyce said Valcke’s letter of re-assurance was not prompted by him.

“I understand Jerome Valcke has written to them but I wasn’t the one to go to FIFA because I was asked not to do so,” he said.

“It was made abundantly clear to me by the Presidents of Scotland and Wales especially, and Northern Ireland, that they had already made their decision – and that they were not going to change it.

“It’s entirely up to them to decide if they are going to look at this but, as I say, they have told me they have made their decision and as the British FIFA representative, I have to respect that.”

It is understood that at least two of the three Home Associations – believed to be Scotland and Wales – took particular exception to the very suggestion of a written FIFA guarantee even though Boyce had no intention of going down this road without being requested to do so.

Couching his words in diplomacy, Boyce hinted strongly that there would be no way out of the current impasse, with the last resort of a written FIFA assurance falling on deaf ears.

Unless, of course, players like Welshmen Gareth Bale (right) and Aaron Ramsey (left) – if selected in what is primarily an under-23 side – defy their federation.

“[FIFA President} Sepp Blatter has stated it [a British Olympic team] would not affect in any way the independence of the three Associations,” said Boyce.

“That was a verbal statement.

“I don’t know what prompted Valcke’s letter.

“Maybe FIFA themselves thought the British associations needed the same thing in writing.”

One other suggestion is that Olympic officials, increasingly anxious for a unified British men’s team at the 2012 football tournament, were the ones to put pressure on FIFA.

But Boyce had no confirmation of this.

“Whether or not this has come from the British Olympic Committee [sic], I don’t know,” Boyce told insideworldfootball.

“What I do know is that it has been made abundantly clear to me is that the Associations do not wish me, as the incoming FIFA vice-president, to get involved in this subject.”

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