FA admits disappointment after GB Olympic football

FA confirms it will not be entering teams at Rio 2016 Olympics

The Football Association has expressed disappointment after being forced to scrap plans to enter British men’s and women’s teams for the Rio 2016 Olympics after opposition from the other home nations.

The FA had told Scotland, Wales and Ireland it was intending to enter teams for Rio provoking, a storm of criticism.

An FA spokesman confirmed the plan has now been dropped, saying: “After careful discussion, the FA has decided not to enter either a women’s or a men’s team into the Rio Olympics 2016.

“We are disappointed not to be able to go ahead, given the fantastic opportunity it would have afforded the players and the broader exposure it would have brought to the game in our countries.”

The Football Association of Wales president Trefor Lloyd Hughes had reacted furiously when the FA sent a letter in January informing the home nations of its plans. He said he was “livid” at the letter and vowed to oppose the move.

Fifa also made it clear that all four home nations would have to agree before the plan could be ratified. In light of that, the FA’s director of football services, Jonathan Hall, contacted the other British associations on Monday to inform them it had decided to drop the plan.

The Fifa vice-president Jim Boyce said last week: ”I was given an absolute categorical reassurance from Fifa that unless full agreement could be reached between England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, there would be no GB team participating at next year’s Olympics.”


Guardian