"World Cup Team England" Topic

Why is the World Cup team called England,not United Kingdom or Britain? Can Scotland and Wales field teams?

Just wondering.

Yep. Last time Scotland qualified was 1998. Wales 1958.

Because football – in the UK is a serious business.

Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales are all individual teams..

If Britain had to field a team it could be the cause of war.. everyone would blame someone else for letting the side down…

Don't forget Northern Ireland, last qualified in 1986.

How about the Cornish, don't they count?

Its actually a disgrace that British soccer is balkanised in this way – another way to put it is why is the German team, for example, not split into the various states that make up its federation, Bavaria, Rhineland, Saxony etc?

All well and good 100 years ago when most professional players were based in the UK, but ripe for a more even playing field now I think!

Well…don't know about a disgrace – a British Team would have a larger pool of players to draw on of course, but I daresay that Scotland, Wales & N.Ireland would be hard to convince to give up their individual nation status.

And if they do it for wendy-ball they will have to do it for important things.

Like rugby! ;-)

Because when set up a hundred odd years ago that was how it was set up. The Scots, Welsh and NI all have their own international teams, but individuals from S,W,and NI can choose to play for England and vice versa.
It's similar to how some Canadian teams play in US leagues, MLS NBA, and some Canadian teams don't, NFL.

How about the Cornish, don't they count?

Cornwall is part of England.

Guernsey, Jersey, and the Isle of Man are not part of England and have their own teams. As they are not members of FIFA, they are not eligible for the World Cup.

Some interesting lessons in sovereignty can be gleaned by looking at who is and isn't eligible. Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, for example, field their own teams as they are strictly not part of the USA. Likewise, Bermuda (a British Overseas Territory) fields it's own team. The Faroe Islands field their own team (vice playing for Denmark), as does Curacao, which became a constituent country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands in 2010. French overseas possessions such as French Guiana, Martinique, Mayotte, etc. are actually départements of France and thus ineligible to field their own teams.

Cornwall is part of England.

Try telling that one in the pub where I come from.

Quite right. You'll be saying Wessex and Mercia are part of England next :)

As I understand it, the national team is operated by the Football Association. The FA only runs football in England therefore the team represents England. Scotland, for example, has it's own FA and it's own team.

This kind of setup is not just limited to football. Lots of sports have individual teams for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

for a headache, see a very nice map on link : the UK explained

I'm guessing the OP is American.

Considering their results it maybe was a team but certainly not of World club level :-)

Rugby! depends if you play league or union

There is a Great Britain rugby league team,
know as the British Lions, first tour 1910.

There is also a GB Union team (Barbarians?), but they compete in the world cup as England, Scotland, Wales etc.

Britain is the sum of the parts, each of which are countries I believe.

I think Cedric has it right
I think there was some fancy footwork needed for the olympics [where we all compete under the team GB banner] to allow footballers to play under a GB banner and not their own FA's as such
But as I'm not a huge football fan I will leave it to others to give you chapter and verse on it
Gary

There isn't a GB or UK rugby union team. The Barbarians are technically a club team albeit one with an unusual history and playing pattern not an international team. The Irish setup for rugby union is different to football as the IRU administrates rugby in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland as a single entity. As such the British and Irish Lions do not count as either the GB or UK (UK being the UN recognised sovereign nation rather than GB despite the Olympic team name so the more relevant naming here) – the Lions fail as they are made up of two countries.

Sevens is a Union variant and in the IRB sevens the Home Nations compete separately by their Union…but I assume that for 7s in the Olympics as is due soon this will not be acceptable to the IOC as me enter as the UK so will have to do the same for rugby 7s and so we can expect the same sort of issues as football had.

I really that UK explained site, I've seen it before but have forgotten.

I think the confusion for yanks is that the UK is a nation and it's made up of what are called countries in the UK, but would be states in other Nations. The modern confusion comes with all the history packed into the small islands I think.

And the national soccer teams of the UK will probably stay separate in order to maintain control of IFAB. No way are they going to give up being able to stop FIFA on changes to the LOTG. You have to get at least two of the FA, FAW, SFA, or IFA to go along with any change.

I think the confusion for yanks is that the UK is a nation and it's made up of what are called countries in the UK, but would be states in other Nations.

Try telling a Scot that. See how far you get.

I used to live in Scotland, I'm fully aware of what they think :) Spent three years in Aberdeen while my wife attended The Robert Gordan.

Doesn't change the fact that Nations/Countries have things like passports, a military, ambassadors. Like I say in the UK the 'states' are considered countries. Not so everywhere else.

'Counties'? Now that is something different again.

Sorry, my misspelling. I've fixed it, just to make the thread even more confusing. :)

Good on you!

And now that we are all clear on this, anyone interested in extra credit can stay behind and discuss why there is a Great Britain team at the Olympics, but England / Scotland teams etc at the Commonwealth games, before moving onto why there is a British army but a Royal Navy and why customers in Scotland get their gas from Scottish Gas, while those in the rest of the UK get theirs from British Gas.

"Doesn't change the fact that Nations/Countries have things like passports, a military, ambassadors. Like I say in the UK the 'states' are considered countries. Not so everywhere else."

Not our fault that everyone else does it wrong…

;)

There was a Great Britain football team for the 2012 London Olympics. It did quite well as a one-off novelty thing and the team got quite a lot of support from a nation caught up in the euphoria of hosting the olympics, but I wouldn't expect it to catch on as a permanent thing. The idea will possibly be resurrected every four years for subsequent Olympic events, but most football fans hate the idea in general, me being one of them.

England is England, Scotland is Scotland, and so on….

You must all way remember as the Brits invented the game they also wright the rules.

When the writing the rules for the internationals game having 4 national association gives you more clout than 1.