- Team GB chiefs are keen to include a men’s football team in the 2028 Olympics
- Great Britain have only played in the men’s tournament at the Games once since 1960.
- Andy Anson revealed that talks will be held with several FAs on the matter
The British team wants to enter a men’s football team for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
Great Britain has only played in the men’s tournament once since 1960, when it was the host nation in 2012.
The football associations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland had previously feared that competing with England as a single entity would jeopardise their independence in future FIFA and UEFA tournaments.
However, there is a feeling that the risk has diminished as FIFA is not prepared to reduce the number of member countries and the British team wants to take advantage of that.
“It’s something I would love to see happen,” said Andy Anson, chief executive of the British Olympic Association.
Team GB wants to field a men’s football team at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics
Andy Anson, chief executive of the British Olympic Association, has revealed his desire to enter a team
‘I would like to work with the FA and the Football Associations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to see if we can achieve this.
“I think it would be fantastic for football, for youth football and for football in general. I think seeing the women’s team compete is fantastic and I would love to see the men’s team compete in the same way.”
The women’s tournament at the Olympic Games is a senior competition, while the men’s is an under-23 event, although each team is allowed three over-age players.
Team Great Britain qualified a women’s team for Tokyo 2020 but missed out on a place at Paris 2024 after Britain’s nominated nation England failed to finish top of its Nations League group.
Team GB also brings together different national governing bodies in sports such as rugby sevens and hockey, and will have to do so in cricket when it returns to the Olympics in 2028.
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“We have good experience of how the four nations can come together and nominate one country to be the main governing body and work with the other countries,” Anson added.
“I think cricket will be the same. The ECB will be at the centre of all this. They will have to work with Cricket Scotland to make sure that happens properly.
‘We will help them sign agreements to join together and create a single national governing body, as we have done in those other sports.
“But we are currently working very closely with the ECB to ensure that they become full members of the National Olympic Committee.”
