A bad idea (U.K. Football Team)

Member Name: bigdave

Product:	U.K. Football Team
Date:	29/11/00 (64 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Larger selection

Disadvantages: Loose national sides

I have just seen on the news that the Home Secretary, Jack Straw suggested that the UK teams unite to form one international side. His argument for this, is that with a larger field of selection then we could become more succesfull in competitions as a united country. The main argument he used is that we compete in athletics under one flag, why cant we do the same for football? I see a number of reasons why this cant happen and probably why it never will.

1)Who will officiate the new team?
If a new international team was to be introduced then a new football organisation would have to be introduced to handle the team. Many arguments would arise from this amongst many being, where whould the new body be based, who would be appointed, who would select the team management, and what appropiate punishments should be dealt with.

I can only see this system working if, at the same time they scrap each individual country's leagues and form a UK wide league(say 10 divisions). This would lead to massive arguments about how the leagues should be devised(e.g. without insulting any of the League of Wales team's or Scottish Premier teams,except Rangers or Celtic, If placed in a UK premier league, they would be the whipping boys of the league).

This setup would be the only fair and accurate way of judging all the players abilities on a level playing field, it would be useless saying a player is excellent in Wales, N Ireland or Scotland, but in true fact they are only a middle of the park player in England and are only be included because of their nationality, it would defeat the purpose of a UK team.

2)Where would the team play?
Each of the individual country's involved have their own national stadium, with their own history and memories, how if any do the new body decide which one they play there international matches at.
The only solution I can think of is building a new large national stadium, but it would have to
be situated, so that it is within the reach of the majority of people. London is for(even most English too far to travel) most too far a journey. If I was going to situate a new national stadium, I think it should be Liverpool, this would make it easily accesible to all the home country's(A short drive for the Welsh, ferry for the Irish, and train for Scots and Londoners)

3)What do the fan's think?
How would the individual fans of each country react to a united team? I personally cant see fan's of Scotland and Wales supporting what would more than likely be a majority English team.
Each country has it's own history and highlights which fans are proud to remember and support, uniting the countrys under one flag I expect would only lead to arguments and trouble, but you never know what would happen if we were beating teams like France and Brazil on a regular basis, the fans could be united by the taste of success. It would be interesting to know what the majority of the population thought about uniting the teams.

4)Just suppose
If I was in Charge of selection of a UK team this is how I'd go!

Neil Sulivan

Brown Campbell Elliot Barry


Beckham B.Ferguson Gascoigne Giggs


Sheringham Heskey

I know each person rates others differently but at the moment, I think these players are playing as well as they have done for a while, for subs I would probably have Miller(Rangers) and Robbie Fowler as to the rest well who knows.

Summary: