By David Owen
April 1 – The all too brief experiment with fielding men’s and women’s Great Britain Olympic football teams is over. Barely a few weeks after signalling its desire to continue sending teams to the Olympics, the Football Association (FA) has been obliged to backtrack and to formally withdraw its proposal.
It has been reported that the idea – rather predictably – failed to gain support from the other home nations, who fret about an existential threat if a Great Britain team becomes anything other than an utterly exceptional phenomenon.
The development appears to signify that the participation of British men’s and women’s teams at London 2012 – when both were eliminated at the quarter-final stage – is an event that is unlikely to be repeated for the foreseeable future.
The decision seems a particular pity for the women’s game, which, while growing fast in popularity, still has limited opportunity to perform in front of the sort of live and TV audiences that an Olympic Games can deliver.
Britain actually boasts a proud Olympic record, in spite of participating only once in the past 55 years. It took the gold medals on the first three occasions it entered, in 1900, 1908 and 1912. It also finished fourth in the exciting and diverse London 1948 Olympic football tournament when a genuinely British Great Britain team, featuring “Lisbon Lion” Ronnie Simpson and managed by the great Matt Busby, gave a spirited and stirring account of themselves.
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