Why dont the UK put a team in the Olympics football ?
 

:?:

it would give the young stars a chance to gain international experience and also give us a chance to see our future stars in action other than a meaningless under21 friendly.

Thoughts?

The Olympics is meant for amatuers, not professionals.

The olympics was for amatuers half a century ago, Boxing is the only event which doesn't allow professionals now

Because one of the home nations (Scotland I think) doesn't want to.

The fact the UK doesn't have a football team might have something to do with it. And possibly the fact that Olympic football isn't exactly very credible.

Because it would have to be a British team rather than an English team. In order to do so there would have to be a British Football Federation which would mean the FA, SFA, WFA, NIFA all merging into one organisation. This would mean that instead of there being 4 British votes on FIFA matters there would be just one.

For obvious reasons the SFA are opposed to such moves as are all the other organisations as it would mean a reduction in their power.

There are also far too many games being played already. Look at how Purple Alex has bitched about the boy-diver Ronaldo being involved. Can you imagine the managers being willing to let even more players go?

so ronaldo is an amatuer ? :?:

they dont have to merge together all they need to do is agree to put a team in, i know cameroon take it as a serious contest and it would give younger fringe players the chance of winning a medal and also gain international experience. they have to be u23 anyway with i think 2 overage players.

i know managers would winge but i think it would be good for the combined national teams and it would also prove once and for all if a Great Britian
team would work!

Who gives a shit about Olympics football anyway. Its like the most worthless "serious" competition ever.

They would have to merge. You have to be recognised by FIFA in order to put a team in. There is no British football federation, hence no British Olympic team.

Moonax is right, if they attempted to put a British team in then FIFA would insist on a merging of the national teams into a Britain team, which obviously isn't going to happen.

o well

Actually Moonax is wrong. Sepp Blatter said Britain could enter a team without merging national bodies. Scotland still said no.

Mind you, it is Sepp Blatter we are talking about so we would probably enter a team and then he would say "well you entered a British team for the Olympics so you can do it for FIFA now".

Blatter has long sought to reduce the power of the home nations - especially as the Scottish representative was one of the prime movers against him during the corruption probe.

maybe because they aren't good enough.

The Olympic football competition should be strictly youth orientated. None of this 3 over 23s bullshit. That said, the 1996 competition was a good watch. Nigeria won it, with Kanu being absolutely immense, back when he was rightfully seen as one of the best players in the world at the age of 18. Soon after he had that heart scare, though.

Hernan Crespo lit up that competition too, and moved to Parma just after it.

What I was saying, the question's been asked before before Atlanta '96 and Sydney 2000 and Fifa to the best of my knowledge have indicated if a team was entered they would at the very least press the home nations into forming a British FA.

Hey ECG, do you know how old Tevez is? Just that I just saw the highlights of Argentina-Costa Rica and he looks on fire, as he did in the Copa America.

Tevez is 19/20, around that age. He is immense. He and Cavenaghi are fucking great in 'tinian football.

Those 'tinian youngsters can decieve you a bit, though. Aimar, Saviola and Riquelme haven't been the superstars people assumed they would be since coming to Europe. Good players, alright. Saviola is still very young, in saying that.

Those three won't live up to their hype. They all signed for the wrong clubs.

Were'nt the birth dates of the Nigerians called into question in 96?

Some players never live up the hype.

Remember Viola?

Also, there was that guy who was signed by Ajax at the age of 10.

Yeah, apparently Kanu wasn't really 17/18. That puts him at 25/26 now.

There are always questions over the African players ages. Roger Milla was quoted anywhere between 38 and 54. Freddy Adu, the American hype sensation, who is supposedly 14 and is actually from Ghana, is rumoured to be several years older.

I don't know about that. If a South American player is going to make it anywhere, it's probably going to be Spain. They are all class players, the expectation can just be huge for them coming to Spanish football. Saviola was only 18 when Barca paid 20 odd million for him.

Africans have been bullsh</>itting about their ages for years. Apparently there are hardly any birth records available.

I know that in some places your birth is registered when you first attend school. So people can go any number of years before being 'born'.

England team + Ryan Giggs = British Team

The Northern Ireland team is so weak, I wouldn't take any of their players to get into a united Ireland side. Aaron Hughes, Neil Lennon and David Healy would make the squad, alright.

Scotland are pretty weak too. I'd have Darren Fletcher and Barry Ferguson to make a British squad. Wales, probably Giggs and Bellamy to push for first team places.

Scottish manager, we all know how shit English ones are.

Welsh ballboys

Too bad you still couldn't have Brad Friedel :shifty:

i think his name was sonny anderson or something like that, am i right in thinking we has the little blond haired lad ?

Sonny Anderson plays for Villareal. He's really quite good.

His name was Sonny, he was some curly haired kid who was always on Fantasy Football and could do loads of keep ups.

Sonny Anderson was the man at Barcelona. Don't remember him ever having blond hair though so nope.

Isn't Sonny Anderson black? The blond hair bit doesn't seeem to go.

The kid's name was Sonny. Sonny Anderson is someone completely different.

Incidentally, I saw Sonny Anderson play for Servette against Crusaders in the UEFA Cup about ten years ago. He was shite.

Whatever happened to that kid at Charlton who did all those keepie ups on the McDonalds advert?

was it sonny liston ? i remember him on fantasy football though in his ajax kit!
think he was about 8 - 10 years old at the time, think he must be at leat 20 - 22 by now .

He joined Chelsea for £12 million in January.

Sonny Liston was a boxer. Stop confusing big black guys with little white kids.

A quick google search reveals that it was Sonny Pike.

Apparently he had a nervous breakdown because of the media attention. I guess that working with frank Skinner would do that to anyone.

WHERE IS SONNY PIKE?

Sonny Pike is currently living near the Scottish town of Dundee, and is studying psychology at Dundee University. He found the pressures of top-class football too much, and in 2003 decided to pursue a more regular caree - having been prive to sports psychologists he decided to follow that path. None the less, he still has a fervent passion for the game, playing Sunday league football for "Dryburgh Saints", as well as weekly 5-aside fixtures against other students, enjoying the, what he calls, "Fag at Half-time" culture. He is currently training for a Scottish F.A. coaching certificate, and as part of this, he coaches two Primary school teams in the area. Although he doesn't support a local team, he goes to matches regularly, purely for his love of the game.

Sonny says that he's much happier away from professional football. He is open that playing professional football was his childhood dream, but the pressure placed on him by his club, agents, sponsors and, to a lesser extent, the media made him suffer a nervous breakdown in October 2000, whilst still part of the Ajax youth squad:

"It couldn't take it, and I got ill, really screwed up. I stopped going to training and stuff, because I was so screwed up I couldn't hack it. Looking back, it's amazing how low I was. Ajax completely forgot about me, they didn't want to know, but as soon as I was better, they acted like they'd always been there for me. I realised how superficial it is at the level, and if I hadn't got back to form I bet they would have turfed me out. That's why I packed it in, it's so unstable.I guess it was during that period that I realised how much psychologists can help people, and I suppose I took it from there."

Sonny Pike says he is not currently considering playing professionally, but he says he is not ruling it out as a prospect for the future, especially at a lower lever. Before coming to University, he played some football in the English Conference. He does not keep any ties with Ajax.

That was Scott Parker?

Damn I might have a look about for that adverrt.

:lol: at myself, thought that name was to easy to be him!

I'd pick Gary Naysmith ahead of the two jocks you named.

:lol: @ Sonny Pike too.

Naysmith is a decent league player, but that's all. Fletcher is a class act in central midfield, and Ferguson has a habit of getting goals from midfield. I'm not completely sold on him, but we'll see how he does in the Premiership this season.

Speaking of Sonny Liston, how about the 3x5 foot poster of him getting knocked down by Muhammad Ali hanging over my bed :love:

It sounds like the sort of thing guaranteed not to impress the ladies.

Hey girls do you want to come out and check out the picture of a sweaty black guy lying on the floor?

Everybody has that poster. It's one of the most common posters around you find students buying. That, and the Rat Pack one with them all playing pool.

i have the england team with the '66 world cup and steve mcqueen at the achtung halt sign from the great escape posters above my bed!

Palermo came with the same hype and now he is at Boca Juniors again. Barcelona apparently had a £20million bid for Luis Fabiano turned down in the summer. I would like to see what he does in Europe, since he is the man for Brazil and Santos.

His goal Vs Urugauy :drool:

Note the word 'meant'. Meant does not mean it is for amateurs.

i put that reply 3 days ago, where the hell have you been?

btw must have misread it before as didnt pick up on the meant bit!

Hey girls, come on in and look at my new Josh Hartnett poster! I bought it so I could impress you! I'm pussy whipped! {/moonax}

He plays for Sao Paolo and Man United have first option on him.

Haha I couldn't remember if it was Sau Paulo or Santos.

And what makes you think you have first option? (You might be right but I have just never heard that before)

Because Sao Paolo are one of our feeder clubs and part of the agreement with have with them and Sporting Lisbon is first option on any player.

We have that with PSV :cool:

Exactly

Palermo was kind of shit any time I saw him for Argentina too, which is the difference.

He missed 3 penalties in one game in the Copa America in 1999. Hilarious. Ronaldinho scored a wonder goal in the same competion when he was but a little nipper. I loved him after that.

Yeah I watched that game, he is still the man when he plays for Boca Juniors though.

I usually can't be bothered with the sports forum.

Because of course looking like this

http://tpww.net/forums/attachment.ph...tid=2486&stc=1

makes you such a babe magnet.

Some of us are a little more evolved and grew out of posters on our walls when we left ceased being teenagers.

Lol, I did look funny when my cheeks were puffy from the removal of my wisdom teeth. Thanks for the update on my appearance for two days!

Maybe in England they like living in a big room with bare white walls, but here in Missouri we like decorating our room so it isn't bland like you.

Thanks for trying though, maybe someday you'll be able to make fun of me

Maybe in England? You might want to stop with that already because half of us on this thread come there.

The sense in which I say it is that Moonax treats everyone from the United States as some stereotype he see's on TV and acts as if because he is from England he is the only one getting the "right" media fed to him.

I have nothing against England, I've visited on two occasions and have family there and I do plan on studying a year there. I also am not the American who is close minded and considers myself a patriot for hanging up a flag or any of that shit. I normally don't defend the United States on shit like this but it has become rediculous the way some people on these boards talk like they are god and we are shit by association, when it simply isn't true. Its like people don't even realize when they stereotype that bad, and I realize it happens both ways, and it should stop on both ways.

My apologies to anyone offended

I wasn't offended. I just wanted to see if you'd backtrack. You should have called us all limey bastards and laughed :p

Not to mention that I already said that everyone, even over here, has that Ali-Liston poster in their room.

Not everyone of course, but shitloads of people. It's one of the most common posters you see at student union things.

Oh I'm not denying that, its a sweet picture and a sweet poster so of course a lot of people have it, but for some reason Moonax thinks I should have bare white walls and is posting pictures of me after getting my wisdom teeth out and not having shaven in days. If somebody knows where he is going, please tell me.

Student Geek Chic. Just not my thing.

Because I take the piss out of you some how makes me anti-American? Well off the top of my head, I've suggested that Mackem is a rent boy who looks like Princess Anne and his mother is a prostitute, that Dazz is gay, do these things make me anti-English?

I'm taking the piss because I think you are a moron. I think that you are a cheerleader and blinded by the hype. Nothing to do with you being American.

It's pretty paranoid to think that I would laugh at you for being American. I laugh at you because you are stupid.