Fifa backs Team GB for football at 2012 Games

FOOTBALL'S governing body has given its seal of approval to Britain entering a united football team at the 2012 Olympics in London.

Scotland, along with Wales and Northern Ireland, has voiced strong concerns that competing together could jeopardise their future as separate international teams.

But Fifa insists the creation of a unified team would not confine the individual national teams to history.

The organisation's president Sepp Blatter issued a statement on the thorny issue yesterday.

He said: "The executive committee confirmed that the participation in the 2012 London Olympic Games of a single team representing Great Britain would not affect the existing individual status of the four British football associations.

"We have no problem with that because four British associations are identified in Fifa statutes as being four different entities.

"And now for the Olympic Games, they have to play in one entity."

Fifa now intends to speak with all four countries to get their thoughts on the issue and, if the plan were to go ahead, how the team would be composed. The four individual football associations are expected to report back to Fifa early next year.

But the announcement will not change the implacable official opposition to a British team north-of-the-border.

Sports minister Stewart Maxwell said: "The Scottish Football Association (SFA) does not support the idea of a GB Olympic football team and the Scottish Government wholeheartedly backs that position.

"Football fans across Scotland do not want a GB football team and neither do the Northern Ireland and Wales football associations."

An SFA spokesman said its opposition to Team GB would remain despite Blatter's assurances. He said: "The problem is Fifa are made up of their members, their members change and it can't guarantee that members in the future will have the same views."

But one Scot definitely in favour of a united team is the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown. Last week he said: "I think there is a way round this problem and that can be found if people can get round the table and discuss it."