Lytha on 4/7/2010 at 14:00
Right! Sorry about that.
That's one of the many things I don't understand about football anyway. Why England instead of UK? Scots, Welshmen and Ires (Irelanders?) not allowed?
Fingernail on 4/7/2010 at 14:16
That is to say, they each have their own national team. There is no team which represents the whole of the UK.
steo on 4/7/2010 at 14:19
They have teams but didn't qualify. The Republic of Ireland would have done, except in their game against France one of the French players made a blatant and intentional hand-ball which lead to a goal which wasn't disallowed because the referee missed it. ROI isn't part of the UK though.
As far as adding technology to aid the ref goes, I agree with it on principle, but since I don't really care that much about football, I'd be sad to see the end of shoddy refereeing, because it gives us so much to shout and complain about, thus making the game more interesting.
EDIT: ahhhh....
ray2010 on 5/7/2010 at 06:48
Quote Posted by Fingernail
That is to say, they each have their own national team. There is no team which represents the whole of the UK.
yeah, u might be right
D'Arcy on 5/7/2010 at 10:12
In the Olympics, if I'm not mistaken, you get a single delegation representing Great Britain. Obviously, there is no interest in having that when it comes to football. I mean, if it were like that, then how would players like Chris Iwelumo get to play at international level?
Fingernail on 5/7/2010 at 10:31
I was going to add that in the Olympics "Team GB" represents the whole country, but we didn't actually put forward a football team (since 1972 apparently!), although we apparently are for the London 2012 games.
SD on 5/7/2010 at 11:46
Quote Posted by D'Arcy
In the Olympics, if I'm not mistaken, you get a single delegation representing Great Britain. Obviously, there is no interest in having that when it comes to football. I mean, if it were like that, then how would players like Chris Iwelumo get to play at international level?
Maybe he could marry a Portuguese girl? ;)
Brian The Dog on 5/7/2010 at 12:09
Yep, Britain has a single team at the Olympics (Northern Ireland sportspersons may choose either Ireland or GB). The reason for separate football associations in the UK is historical, but they refuse to join together as they currently get 4 votes at UEFA and FIFA, whereas if they joined together they'd get one. Since each "nation" gets its one vote despite its power or size, Scotland Wales & NI all refuse to join together with England as they'd get much less say (I'm not too sure England would be happy about it either!).
It's a similar anomaly to Swansea and Cardiff being in the English league despite being definitely Welsh - Cardiff made it to the FA Cup Final a few years back and nearly qualified as an English team in the Europa League, making UEFA very confused.
Lytha on 5/7/2010 at 18:54
This is weird. Why don't the rest of the european nations send in a bunch of regional teams then as well? Maybe Germany should claim that tradition demands that there have to be an eastern and a western team! ;)
Btw: I'm afraid that my sympathies are about to swing towards the Netherlands. "Mark van Bommel" - that's just too great a name. :D
