Saturday 31 January 2009

Let's fly the flag together!


I was on Facebook a little while ago and received a message from my good friend and possible future Prime Minister Rodney McCune.

In addition to all his other pursuits such as being a hard-nosed barrister and a hairy-backed swimmer, Rodney is the driving force behind the Westminster Unionist Association (WUA) which now has its own Facebook group of the same name (feel free to join!)

He contacted me today to ask if I wished to comment on any of the discussion topics currently being debated on Facebook by WUA members and the following one jumped out at me: "No GB Football Team for the Olympics - good or bad?"

For those who don't know the background to this, the Football Associations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are against their players being part of a Great Britain team at the London 2012 Olympics because of a fear that FIFA - football's world governing body - will then force them to play as a single GB team thereafter rather than as four individual home nations, England obviously being the other one.

Personally, I think the three Celtic associations are being joyless and ridiculously narrow-minded in their approach. And so, to answer Rodney's request, here is what I put (and I hope you share my sentiment):

"Bad. The Irish, Scottish and Welsh FAs should stop being so paranoid and embrace the flag.

"It's a one-off and FIFA have said there's no threat to their independence so where's the problem?

"The Olympics are about the athletes, not the administrators or politicians. Let the players play!

"I'm certainly available to go into goal should the call come (as long as it's not from "Sir" Clive Woodward who can go f*** himself)."

NB: Former England rugby union head coach and all-round big-head Sir Clive Woodward was recently appointed as the Great Britain Olympic Team's "performance supremo" and is likely to have a big hand in the preparation of the football squad for 2012. I'm not a huge fan of Sir Clive Woodward.

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