IT IS by far the most popular sport on these shores, but when the world descends on London in four years' time, it is set to be baffled by the absence of a unified Great Britain football team. Unless, that is, Gordon Brown gets his way.
After the Prime Minister made clear his wish to see the four home nations rally together to compete as one side, the backlash to one of sport's thorniest issues began, as could be expected.
Having been an issue of contention for more than a deca
de, the row over whether the likes of Barry Ferguson and Wayne Rooney might line up in the same national colours has taken on added momentum since London was awarded the 2012 Olympic Games.
Yet for all the meetings behind closed doors and reassurances from football's governing bodies, there remains an apparently insurmountable resistance to the idea – the bookmaker William Hill is offering odds of 8/11 that there will not be a Team GB in 2012, and just even money that there will be.
With the Prime Minister expressing his desire to see a team coached by Sir Alex Ferguson, the Manchester United manager, the fall-out continued yesterday. Scotland manager George Burley reiterated the steadfast opposition of the Scottish Football Association (SFA) to any notion of a unified outfit. "It's been black and white from day one," said Burley, speaking at the opening of Falkirk's new football centre, which is based at Stirling University.
"The national team comes first and, at the moment, we are keen to keep our nationality intact. We have to have a national Scottish team and we can't put that in jeopardy, so there has been no change."
Asked for his take on the notion of a knockout competition among the home nations to determine a representative at the Games, he added: "That's all hypothetical. The problem with international games is getting dates for them, so it doesn't even come into the equation."
Eamonn Bannon, the former Hearts, Hibs and Dundee United player, told The Scotsman last night: "I don't think a British team is something that will happen. The football event in the Olympics has a much higher profile in other countries compared with Britain, and the football authorities in Scotland see the idea as the thin end of the wedge. If it were to go ahead, it would intimate the end of a separate Scottish team. What's more, if you had to pick a team tomorrow, you would be lucky to find any Scots in it."
Julie Fleeting, MBE, captain of Scotland's national women's team and a striker for the Women's English Premier League team, Arsenal, said: "First and foremost I'm Scottish and very proud to be Scottish.
"If having a British team means young girls will lose out on the opportunity of pulling on a Scottish jersey, then I'm not for it. It was a very, very proud moment for me and it would be devastating for girls not to get that chance. Looking at the numbers – a British team would have far more players to choose from and would cut out a lot of Scottish girls."
David Beckham, a leading player in the handover ceremony in Beijing, revealed his desire to see a British team and put forward his own name as that of coach. "We deserve to have a football Team GB at the Olympics, and I hope it gets sorted," he said.
But Sir Sean Connery, speaking at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, called for Scotland to become an independent nation at every event in future olympiads.
The main reason for opposition to the idea of Team GB on the part of Scotland, Wales and, to a lesser extent, Northern Ireland, is simple: self-preservation.
Though they may be members of the UK, the constituent nations enjoy special treatment in the wider international football community.
In 1946, Sir Stanley Rous, then the (English) Football Association secretary, knew that the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (Fifa), the game's governing body, was virtually bankrupt. Cunningly, he bartered proceeds of a 1947 Britain v Fifa game in exchange for a fixed British vice-presidency and maintenance of the four home nations.
That anomaly has continued to this day, and the home nations enjoy a power in the game that other nations have come to regard as disproportionate, considering their relative failure in major tournaments over the years.
Their position has already come under fire from some in Fifa, with Jack Warner, the controversial Trinidad and Tobago representative, branding the set-up an "anachronism". An Olympic team, it seems, would only fan the flames.
The SFA, in particular, has been vocally opposed to the concept ever since Tony Banks, the then sports minister, said there should be a British in team in 1999.
Sepp Blatter, the president of Fifa, has been inconsistent in his views on how a Team GB would impact on the autonomy of the home nations. Five years ago, he said a united team could be formed, with no harm to the separate associations. However, this spring, he appeared to perform a U-turn, suggesting that such a team "will put into question all the privileges that the British associations were given".
Gordon Smith, the chief executive of the SFA, has said his organisation's opposition is not based purely on the possible dissolution of the Scottish national side. Football at the Olympics, he argues, is not considered a major event compared with key European and international competitions.
That stance has been evident in the run-up to London 2012. Two years ago, when the British Olympic Association arranged an inaugural round-table discussion on the topic of a Great Britain team, Scotland and Wales's representatives did not even attend.
Should minds meet, 2012 would mark the first appearance of a British football team at the Olympics in more than five decades, its last foray coming in 1960 in Italy, when it was eliminated at the group stages.
The last time Britain competed as the one entity was in 1971, during the qualification round for the following year's Munich Games. The side faltered against a well-drilled collection of Bulgarians.
In 1974, the Football Association Council abolished the official distinction between professionals and amateurs. As the Olympics were then open to amateur sportsmen and women only, British Olympic football became a footnote of history. Whether it will be a part of the future remains to be seen.
POSSIBLE TEAMS?GREAT BRITAIN 2008 (4-4-2)CRAIG GORDON (SCOTLAND)
ALAN HUTTON (SCOTLAND)
JOHN TERRY (ENGLAND)
RIO FERDINAND (ENGLAND)
ASHLEY COLE (ENGLAND)
STEVEN DAVIS (N IRELAND)
FRANK LAMPARD (ENGLAND)
STEVEN GERRARD (ENGLAND)
OWEN HARGREAVES (ENGLAND)
WAYNE ROONEY (ENGLAND)
CRAIG BELLAMY (WALES)
GREAT BRITAIN 2012 (4-4-2)CRAIG GORDON (SCOTLAND)
MICAH RICHARDS (ENGLAND)
JOHN TERRY (ENGLAND)
TOM HUDDLESTONE (ENGLAND)
GARETH BALE (WALES)
STEVEN DAVIS (N IRELAND)
AARON RAMSEY (WALES)
SCOTT BROWN (SCOTLAND)
OWEN HARGREAVES (ENGLAND)
WAYNE ROONEY (ENGLAND)
THEO WALCOTT (ENGLAND)
