LONDON – Manchester United and England legend Bobby Charlton is to be asked to help bring together a Great Britain football team to compete at the 2012 London Olympics. To date all attempts to forge a unified team have met with stiff opposition from the the Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish football associations leaving open the prospect of only English players being involved.
But London 2012 chairman Sebastian Coe believes that Charlton has the clout and prestige to bring the nations together to field an inclusive British team. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland fear playing as a British team could affect their position as separate nations, in the eyes of world governing body FIFA, but Charlton believes they can be persuaded to make their players available.
Charlton said at the Laureus Awards, according to insidethegames.biz: “Seb Coe is a good personal friend, and he has said he is expecting I’ll try to help them, so that’s where we are. “Trying to get a Great Britain team together is going to be very interesting. “I don’t know how they are going to do it – someone there must know.”
“But countries like Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland are very passionate, they expect to be able to perform in the Olympic Games themselves. “If they have to play as a British team it’s going to be a hard thing for them to do. “But they will do it, I’m sure they will be fine.”
