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UK Football Team
Not really the ideal time for this I suppose, after England had a decent World Cup, but isn't it time for a UK team to be competing at the major tournaments.
We have a UK athletics team that competes at the Olympics. This team obviously includes Northern Ireland.
We have had a UK Olympic football team.
We have a UK rugby team that includes the whole of Ireland, and would be a better team if it had a permanent manager, and was in permanent existence, rather than being put together just before a tour.
We have an England cricket team that has regularly included players not only from just elsewhere in the UK, but throughout most of the rest of the world. Incredibly it is still called England.
The real question is would a UK football team have won more than one tournament in the last 50 years?
I think that the overwhelming majority of the players that made up a UK team would be English, but I think it difficult to argue that over the years there have been some exceptional players from elsewhere in the UK that would have made a tremendous difference to the England team.
I don't want to go into a long list of these players, but George Best would probably top the list in my lifetime, and more recently Ryan Giggs, and Gareth Bale spring to mind (as a Welsh person).
The current arrangements can only persist through vested interest, rather than common sense, or maybe the powers that be are still living in the days of the Empire and we believe we are better than we really are.
Wouldn't a majority want to win more than one tournament every 50 years or so?
We have a UK athletics team that competes at the Olympics. This team obviously includes Northern Ireland.
We have had a UK Olympic football team.
We have a UK rugby team that includes the whole of Ireland, and would be a better team if it had a permanent manager, and was in permanent existence, rather than being put together just before a tour.
We have an England cricket team that has regularly included players not only from just elsewhere in the UK, but throughout most of the rest of the world. Incredibly it is still called England.
The real question is would a UK football team have won more than one tournament in the last 50 years?
I think that the overwhelming majority of the players that made up a UK team would be English, but I think it difficult to argue that over the years there have been some exceptional players from elsewhere in the UK that would have made a tremendous difference to the England team.
I don't want to go into a long list of these players, but George Best would probably top the list in my lifetime, and more recently Ryan Giggs, and Gareth Bale spring to mind (as a Welsh person).
The current arrangements can only persist through vested interest, rather than common sense, or maybe the powers that be are still living in the days of the Empire and we believe we are better than we really are.
Wouldn't a majority want to win more than one tournament every 50 years or so?
Comments
The other home nations now have a better chance than ever of reaching major tournaments. Are Scotland/Wales/NI better off getting whatever prize money and TV money comes from your qualifying campaign and possible qualification, or joining up with England and only getting a small share of one lot of TV money?
On top of that, Wembley would still get the majority of home games for a GB side as long as the side is predominantly Englishmen. The SFA now goes from having 5 home games throughout a qualifying campaign plus friendlies to now maybe getting 1 game if they're lucky. Also good luck ever getting a GB team playing a competitive fixture at Windsor Park.
If you're thinking only of putting the best team possible on the field, then obviously this is the smart move. However, there's just too much £££ involved for it to ever happen IMO.
The only reason to do this would be to get the best possible team on the pitch, therefore improve results, and maybe win a tournament now and again.
It was great to see what Englands World Cup run did for the country, and it would be good to see this happen on a more regular basis.
All the logistical arrangements could easily be thought out.
I don't see a financial loss due to increased support, and increased income due getting further in tournaments. In fact there would be savings through the other countries not having to pay their respective managers, players, and support staff. The UK FA would obviously give financial support to football in the independent countries.
I am not sure whether Wembley will be sold, but many people in Wales live closer to Wembley than England supporters living in the north of England.
I am not sure that the individual UK countries just scraping into tournaments, and getting knocked out in the early stages, really makes their supporters happy.
The fact that there are so many developing countries as far as football goes will only make these tournaments more difficult.
You might have to wait another 50 years for England to get a similar draw to the one they got in this World Cup.
I am surprised that a Welsh person would even suggest this.
As a proud Wales supporter, I could never support such a thing.
When I go to Wales games, the atmosphere is unbelievable. The national anthem is sung so passionately that the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Yes, really.
I was lucky enough to go to the Wales v Belgium match at EURO2016. I can't adequately describe how I felt that day.
From the journey there, both sets of fans singing and dancing in the town centre both before and after the match, to the victory and the celebrations afterwards.
I am an avid football supporter and that day was the very best day of my life.
Yes, I have told the wife that. And she understands.
Now, take that away and replace it with God Save The Queen followed by 10 Englishman and Gareth Bale.
Never.
Imagine Scottish or Irish fans supporting that team.
Never.
Incidentally, the British media already think we all support England, judging by the ridiculous hype and the commentaries on TV during the world cup.
There was a tiny fraction about Wales relative success two years ago.
They were more concerned about how bad England were.
An interesting topic @HAYSIE but the answer is a resounding
NO.
Iceland have a population of 334,000-less than almost everywhere. Made the final stages of the last 2 major tournaments.
Scotland in the 1970s were a better team than England. Think it is important for the Celtic nations to keep separate where possible, though it does annoy the rest of the world...
However, the facts are that Wales have qualified for two tournaments in the last 60 years.
We are meant to be a United Kingdom.
Surely, everyone could be much prouder of one really good team, that could challenge to actually win some tournaments, rather than put up with one pretty average team, and three not very good ones.
The performance of the smaller countries in attempting to qualify for tournaments has been on occasion embarrassing over the years.
I think that if this occurred, which wont be in my lifetime, some people may be surprised by the support.
I think that the improvement in results from where we currently are, goes without question.
The British Lions get tremendous support from right across the UK, and would be far more likely to win a Rugby World Cup, than any of the home nations.
So are we a United Kingdom or not? Is the struggle to even qualify for a tournament enough for everyone except England? Should everyone just get used to hardly ever winning anything?
You are producing arguments that support my position rather than dispute it.
Croatia have got to a World Cup Final once, ever.
Iceland have no choice, they cant invade any neighbours to get a bigger population, and more good footballers. If Iceland win a European Championship or a World Cup in my lifetime I will gladly eat my hat.
What Iceland have achieved, as a very small country is commendable, but can only be seen as success through the eyes of a UK citizen that has become so used to such abysmal failure in regard to football tournaments.
Can qualification, and falling at the first hurdle really be seen as success?
You surely cant be expecting Scottish supporters to gain happiness by thinking back to the 70s. Many of their supporters weren't even born then.
Many UK sports fans from all parts of the country get behind both the athletics team in the Olympics, and The British Lions on tour.
Do only Scottish fans cheer on Andy Murray at Wimbledon?
The best chance of ever winning a World Cup, or even a European Championship ever again is with a UK team.
That only gave them 6 or 7 WCs to qualify for.(Not sure they were eligible to qualify for 1994.)
I am Welsh/English because of my family heritage.
If I was good enough to play football at international level, which team should I choose?
The one that gives me the better chance of winning something or the one that would I would be proud to represent.
The same applies to who I support.
I cant see that there is any pride or pleasure in watching the team you support losing, sometimes heavily to the better teams in the world.
Don't just think about the pride you felt watching Wales in the last Euros, think about the disappointment of the previous 50 plus years where they never even qualified for any tournament.
If you were an athlete you would aspire to represent the UK at the Olympics.
The England cricket team has included a number of Welsh players over the years, and at the minimum should be called the UK cricket team.
The last British Lions tour was full of Welsh players. Don't tell me that Welsh rugby supporters did take any pride in this.
So why have UK teams in some areas, but not football.
Surely there would be more pride in having one team able to compete at the highest level, rather than continue as we are.
I am 62 years old, and Wales qualified for a World Cup when I was two, and the last European Championship. England, with infinitely more resources have managed one World Cup win, two semi finals, and one European semi, (two if you include 1968, but only 4 teams competed).
The record of all the home nations are quite disappointing. Yet one combined team could rectify this.
If we were living in Iceland, all we could probably hope for is to qualify for the odd tournament, sometimes at a real struggle, to rarely get past the group stages, and never ever win one.
We all know that when it finishes, the players go back to representing their different countries.
What you are proposing is like The Lions is the national team and Wales Rugby Team will never play again.
We could use the same logic to merge all the 92 league teams into The Sky Six( (and maybe a few more).
The vast majority have no real chance of significant success but it is all relative.
Why don't Bury merge with MUFC, Fulham with Chelsea, the two Sheffield clubs, etc?
When MCFC were playing Macclesfield in League 2 (Division 3) a few years ago, how many were considering merging with United?
Do you think the supporters of any of those teams would accept that?
Part of supporting a football team is taking the lows with the highs.
Getting whooped makes the victories all the more sweeter.
Although, with club football in mind, you could say we currently have in the UK on an international basis, 3 Macclesfields and a West Ham. Whereas if you put them all together you might well end up with a Man City.
If you started from scratch, with no history, as Great Britain, or the UK. What would be the reason that you would wish to compete on a national stage with smaller weaker teams, rather than one stronger national team. Take history away and you would think that anyone that suggested doing that was a lunatic.
In the Olympics we only reach a respectable medal tally because of the fact there is one team. The alternative would be 5 teams languishing towards the bottom of the medal table.
Will any of them ever win a European Championship, or a World Cup again? Or will most of them struggle to qualify as usual.
When are we going to win another Rugby World Cup?
You could keep the six nations, but still have the Lions as the National side for World Cups.
Would The All Blacks decide in future to have two teams, one from the North Island, the other from the South? That would be comparable to what we are doing.
Why would they choose to have two weaker sides rather than one strong one?
There was a great buzz around the country after Englands World Cup run. If they had gone out in the group stages many supporters would have been looking for tall buildings to jump off.
I am not sure about you, but most supporters take pride in and enjoy seeing their team win.
I take pride and enjoy seeing Wales win.
It is what makes who we are.
We can't erase the past or imagine we are starting afresh as one team.
We are individual football nations.
I accept that a UK team would have a better chance to win a cup but as I have said previously, winning is not everything.
I think we are just going to have to disagree on this matter.
Cymru am byth.
The fact that there are now Scottish and Irish teams go a long way to support the argument for a UK team, in all sports.
The reason that I included the cricket team in this debate, was because the English cricket team has clearly not restricted itself to selecting only English players, and have selected players from elsewhere in the UK, but have continued to call it the England team.
I hope I can live long enough to see Scotland, or Ireland win the Cricket World Cup or beat Australia in a test series.
There has been talk of a Welsh team lately, which would be a further backward step.
The point that the smaller countries with few players to choose from, rarely if ever, do well in any of these tournaments, never mind win any of them, has been made earlier in the thread.
My argument is that we choose to be a group of small countries with little chance of ever winning anything, rather than one larger country. This choice does not make sense.
Ok, so if losing was the plan, it has worked brilliantly over the last 50 years.
If winning is everything, why don't we all support France or whoever is best at any time.
Would you rather play for Wales (or UK) and not win a trophy or play for another country and win something?
I have to follow what is in my heart and what I believe is right.
Through thick and thin ( mostly thin).