FA won’t give up on Olympic dream
THE FA are preparing to accommodate all requests from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in an attempt to field men’s and women’s Team GB football teams at Tokyo 2020.
A breakfast meeting in Athens between the four home nations before the UEFA Congress at least agreed to keep a dialogue going, which is enough slim incentive for the FA to do all they can to keep the Olympic football dream alive.
One of the traditions that most upsets the Celtic nations is that of England holding the football representative position on the British Olympic Association in perpetuity. But the FA are prepared to stand down immediately so that post can be shared around the four countries.
And the FA would ensure all management and decision-making around the two teams is a proper collaborative process. The problem of club releases still makes it unlikely Team GB will take a men’s football team to Japan but a women’s side is a realistic ambition.
Meanwhile, the Government has yet to decide who will pay for the street parades in London and Manchester for Team GB and Para GB after their record Rio medal hauls. Nor is it clear what form of transport will be used to ferry hundreds of athletes between the two cities. ANTICIPATION surrounding next week’s Ryder Cup doesn’t quite extend to the celebrity match being held on Tuesday at Hazeltine to give the crowd paying to watch practice matches a bit more value for money. The US team includes swimming star Michael Phelps and actor Bill Murray (above). The Europeans have former footballers Andriy Shevchenko and Alessandro Del Piero and Ireland rugby icon Paul O’Connell, who is one of those chosen by European captain Darren Clarke to give an inspirational talk to his team during the week. ONE doesn’t associate cricket’s County Championship with Premier League-style helicopters ferrying the trophy to the winning county. The fact is two championship trophies exist.
One was at Lord’s yesterday for the remarkable Middlesex v Yorkshire climax and the other was in position at Taunton to be presented to Somerset, which turned out not to be required. SUCH are the shenanigans surrounding the introduction of the new T20 competition in English cricket that counties opposing the eight-city format still expect a vote among just the 18 counties before the plan goes to the ECB’s 41-strong stakeholder electorate. This includes the minor counties, who are expected to support the proposed scheme because they will benefit financially. But the ECB say after the 16-3 backing they received from the counties and MCC last week, there will be no other votes apart from that final stakeholder ballot once the board give their approval next month.