On 25/07/2012 21:49, Eric B wrote: > some would say the UK is not a nation but a state, others call it a > nation-state. Depends what you read and who you talk to. The jury is out on > that one. As a foreigner I look at it as a state more > than a nation, ref. the scots wants to have a referendum about > independence. I ve never seen a nation divorce itself. It's happened... Sudan/South Sudan, about a year ago. Held a referendum and everything. Before that, eg Yugoslavia... now five different countries. > It is definitively not fair that suddenly its team GB in some instances but > in other instances its not. IE there is no GB in UEFA and FIFA football. > But suddenly in the olympics its cool? Suddenly having a vaster pool to > chose from is a form of cheating me says. Mind you, the french have got a > bit of the same where they draw on athletes from the old colonies I think, > right?
For some instances, you mean this one time. Normally, there's no Team GB in Olympic football. They can't qualify because the qualifying tournament is FIFA's under-21 competition, and there's no Team GB in that. So, this once, because the host nation automatically qualifies, there's a Team GB. And the worry is not that it's unfair for this one time to pick from all of the UK (not that they can, as it's an under-23 competition), but that FIFA might try and suggest there should only be one vote from the UK on the IFA Board (cf Blatter "why the hell do they have four associations and four votes and their own vice-presidency?") and the upshot of that is that a British team in FIFA/UEFA would permanently have a vaster pool to choose from (though, to be fair, the current SFA view is that no-one in the Scottish national team would get in a GB one... so YMMV), and maybe three other countries would get to vote on extra linesmen and the offside rule. - Si _______________________________________________ Leedslist mailing list Info and options: http://mailman.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/leedslist To unsubscribe, email leedslist-unsubscr...@gn.apc.org PETE CASS (1962 - 2011) Rest In Peace Mate
