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Key quote: “If official proof were needed of the threat to Scottish football, both at national and club level, by this politically motivated proposal for a GB football team then it is contained within this document.” – Christine Grahame MSP
Any assurances given by either FIFA or the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown over the future of the national Scotland football team would be meaningless if Scottish players take part in a GB Olympic football team, newly released official Government documents have shown.
SNP MSP Christine Grahame who obtained the documents under Freedom of Information laws, said the revelation demonstrated London Labour’s cavalier attitude to the future of the Scottish national side and called on Gordon Brown to dump his plans for a GB/England team at the Olympics and start to get behind the country of his birth. Ms Grahame who also convenes the Parliament’s Sport committee said:
“Only last month Gordon Brown was telling us that he had spoken to the President of FIFA, Sepp Blatter, and was confident he would get the ‘assurances’ needed to persuade the Scottish Football Association, and their counterparts in Wales and Ireland, to take part in a GB Olympic football team.
“The documents I have obtained flatly contradict that and demonstrate that any such assurance would be meaningless.
“In 2004 Mr Blatter was invited to Number 10 Downing Street along with the head of the English FA in a bid to engineer the circumstances that would lead to the establishment of a GB football team. A member of the British Olympic Committee was also present as they considered how to adapt the rules to enable a GB football team to be set up. This meeting conveniently overlooked the fact that the English FA and FIFA cannot change the rules without the Scottish Football Association as well as the Welsh and Irish football Associations having a say. That is typical of the arrogance and colonial attitude the British Government has towards Scotland.
“This document makes it clear that the current President of FIFA cannot bind his successors to any assurance or agreement that would secure the future of an independent national Scotland squad, utterly contradicting what the Prime Minister has been saying on the issue.
“The document, written when Labour were still in power in Scotland, also flags up to Whitehall officials that ‘here in Scotland there is no discernable public pressure for participation [in a GB team], probably the reverse because many people understand that a potentially very significant precedent would be set.’
“So why then is Gordon Brown so committed to risking the future of the Scotland side? He knows his popularity is at an historic low, both north and south of the Border and it appears in both policy terms and in his actions that he views his future prospects for revival solely in England. If that means sacrificing the Scotland football team and undermining Scottish club football also, as this documents highlights, then that appears to be a price worth paying for this increasingly desperate man.
“It is clear the majority of Scottish football supporters and, as these papers show, the majority of Scots do not want a GB football team. The only people who back it are the English FA, the Anglo-centric British Olympic Committee and this increasingly discredited Prime Minister.
“If official proof were needed of the threat to Scottish football, both at national or club level, by this politically motivated proposal for a GB football team then it is contained within this document.”
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