Fury over ‘Team GB’ Olympic football deal

The 2012 Olympic organisers have been in need of some good news what with the recent furore over tickets, and it seemed like they'd got it when they issued a press statement on Tuesday claiming an "historic agreement" had been reached with the four home football associations over fielding a Great Britain team at next year's London Games.

There was just one slight problem - Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have absolutely no intention of joining England in Team GB. Just hours after the British Olympic Association [BOA] had announced that for the first time since the 1960 Olympics Britain would field a united football team, the Celtic unions issued a statement of their own in which they said: "No discussions took place with any of us, far less [has an] historic agreement been reached."

This was a straight contradiction of what the BOA had trumpeted. According to them the English Football Association had "consulted with its partner associations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in developing the player-selection criteria and timeline". In addition it had also been apparently agreed that for the first time in the Olympic history a women's GB side would be fielded.

What might have got the goat of the Celts was the disclosure that the FA would be the ones advising the BOA on managerial and team selection; perhaps not the most tactful way of going about things considering that the Celtic football associations have long lived in the shadow of their more powerful neighbour. They certainly made their feelings clear in their statement, even though they had been assured by the BOA that participation in a Team GB "will in no way compromise their autonomy and independence for other Fifa-sanctioned tournaments". 

The chief executives of all three Celtic football associations put their names to the statement in which they flatly refused to countenance the idea because of the need to "protect the identity of each national association". Meanwhile George Peat, president of the Scottish FA, could barely contain his anger when asked about the BOA's action: "I am absolutely astounded that they have put out this statement," fumed Peat, adding: "I know nothing about any such agreement and we want nothing to do with this tournament."

The news will come as an embarrassment not just to the BOA but also to FA general secretary Alex Horne, who was quoted as saying in the statement: "We're delighted there will be football teams representing Team GB at the London 2012 Olympics."

There are still some 1.7m tickets available for the men's and women's football tournaments, and though they go on sale from Friday punters are more likely to see Ryan Giggs singing the praises of Twitter than they are a Great Britain side singing God Save the Queen in 12 months time. ·