Great Britian

[Mystic]

This thread is spawned from reading threads about the Olympics and Oncy's population evaluation. Do you think there could ever be a case of ditching England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland's national teams in favour or a Great British national team? There is a pretty compelling argument, we'd no doubt be a much better team for it, Bale and Ramsey being the first two names I can think of, and as a nation we are British. I reckon having a better overall British team would result in better players emerging as well from across all 4 regions, if you have a national team that's performing well, naturally kids are going to be more interested in football. I imagine most people would be strongly against this, and to be honest I'm not overly sure where my opinion on the matter lies, but I think our chances of becoming a major international team would be hugely boosted by becoming the UK.

 

[RedZeppelin III]

obviously it is an interesting subject to debate but let's be honest , it would be a massive shock if it ever happened outside the Olympic team . And why would it be allowed while technically they are 4 countries . Get all 4 to ditch their status as a country and rename the whole place the United Kingdom with each country a state like in the US and then fair enough . Actually with that in mind i am not even sure why they are allowed to compete as Great Britain in the Olympics .

 

[Athens]

They would never agree to it in case the various FAs of each country lose their vote in FIFA. Currently N. Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England all get one vote each while the rest of the world gets four votes or something ridiculous like that.

 

[dave2]

No. I like the England vs Scotland and England vs Wales matches. Although they are both shit at the moment they may improve in the future and make for some interesting games.

Another reason is it would be unfair on Wales, Scotland and N.Ireland because lets face it on merit N.Ireland would have no players in the squad, Scotland might have 1 or 2 and the same for Wales. So you’re denying a lot of players international football.

 

[hmmmmm1]

A gb team would be full of English players, can't see why the other nations would do that.

Also the next euros will have 24 teams so, more chance of Wales/Scotland getting there

 

[Hyena]

obviously it is an interesting subject to debate but let's be honest , it would be a massive shock if it ever happened outside the Olympic team . And why would it be allowed while technically they are 4 countries . Get all 4 to ditch their status as a country and rename the whole place the United Kingdom with each country a state like in the US and then fair enough . Actually with that in mind i am not even sure why they are allowed to compete as Great Britain in the Olympics .

They are one country.

 

[Mystic]

They are one country.

Was about to make this point, and this is part of the reason I find it strange that we can compete as England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, neither of those four are technically classed as a country under the union, the UK is the country.

 

[Athens]

Was about to make this point, and this is part of the reason I find it strange that we can compete as England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, neither of those four are technically classed as a country under the union, the UK is the country.

Was it you I had this debate with last week?

 

[Jürgen4PM]

No, just NO!

Saying that though i absolutely love the British and Irish Lions.

 

[the count]

It would be a great opportunity to give the likes of the Welsh lads a chance to play at a major tournament to be fair.

 

[Jürgen4PM]

It wouldn't be fair on the Irish and Scots, considering the team would only be made up of Welsh and English players.

 

[the count]

It wouldn't be fair on the Irish and Scots, considering the team would only be made up of Welsh and English players.

Well I suppose it works well for the cricket team.
It could be just simply called England like the cricket team as well

 

[Jürgen4PM]

As any respectable cricket fan would know, it's the England and Wales cricket team.

 

[Athens]

Wales have a cricket team?

 

[Jürgen4PM]

Yeah we're playing Australia today mate.

 

[the count]

Wales have a cricket team?

Yep, its called England

 

[Jürgen4PM]

They only shorten the name so that it's convenient for TV purposes

 

[the count]

They only shorten the name so that it's convenient for TV purposes

Lol

 

[Mystic]

Was it you I had this debate with last week?

I'm not sure, do you disagree with the fact? It's pretty stonewalled.

 

[Athens]

I'm not sure, do you disagree with the fact? It's pretty stonewalled.

We were debating the official name of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

 

[Tal]

There's no reason why England should seek to join with Scotland or Wales in footballing matters when those two countries continually seek independence from the English in every way they possibly can.

With an English population the same size as Spain's (I think I saw that on the population thread thing), England doesn't need any help from any of the UK nations, it just needs to do things differently.

 

[doctor_mac]

I've always found it interesting that the Union Jack represents England, Ireland and Scotland (cross of St. George, Patrick and Andrew) but Wales isn't represented. It's like, fuck them, who cares?

 

[nealmac]

Wasn't Wales part of England at the time the flag came about? Or something?

 

[the count]

I've always found it interesting that the Union Jack represents England, Ireland and Scotland (cross of St. George, Patrick and Andrew) but Wales isn't represented. It's like, fuck them, who cares?

I think it's simply because Wales is really a sub part of England, Doc.

 

[Mystic]

I've always found it interesting that the Union Jack represents England, Ireland and Scotland (cross of St. George, Patrick and Andrew) but Wales isn't represented. It's like, fuck them, who cares?

My educated guess would be because the union was between the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland, the former which included the annexed Wales

 

[the count]

Welsh people are English people with a penchant for sheep.

 

[Hyena]

Wales was conquered in the 1200s and formally annexed in the 1500s.
I don't most people outside the Europe can point to Wales on a map, if they even know of its existence.

 

[Silver Sean]

No.

 

[Athens]

Wales was conquered in the 1200s and formally annexed in the 1500s.
I don't most people outside the Europe can point to Wales on a map, if they even know of its existence.

When I was in the states a girl asked me 'what's it like living in England?' I said that I'm from Ireland and she said 'Oh, I was getting confused with Wales.'

So she had heard of it, but I'm not sure she fully understood what exactly Wales was.

 

[doctor_mac]

So, to recap, Wales were so subjugated in the past it was considered as a bit of England with people who couldn't speak English properly and with a penchant for sheep? So subjugated, their cricket players were happy to be called 'England'?

Is this right?