General knowledge and football question: why no British team?

Cristobal

Cristobal

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I don't know much about football and I am only interested when my national team gets good results (which is rare ...)

Since the Icelanders defeated the English team, I keep wondering what would have happened if the team had been composed of players from the 4 nations of the UK. After all, I assume that in the Olympics (summer and winter) games, the UK has a national team for volley ball, handball, ice hockey, etc., and will have a national rugby team for Rio 2016. So why not for the football worldcup/Euro championship?

Bobby-Moore-holds-aloft-the-Jules-Rimet-World-Cup-trophy-as-he-sits-on-the-shoulders-of-his-teammates-after-the-match.jpg


Coming from a very centralized country, I don't really get the way it works here in Britain : I've been or lived in confederations like Canada, Germany, Spain or USA, despite the fact they are composed of more or less autonomous states or provinces, they do have a one and only national football team (I guess). o_O

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Had the UK presented a national football team with the best elements of their nations, maybe the Icelanders would have gone back to their volcano island sooner... :)

So why no team Britain? Is it just historical or cultural, or even a political matter? Pride of the nations?
 
Thank you, I have a better understanding, although it's pretty counter-productive to me.

This is sometimes raised as an argument in favour of a single United Kingdom national team: based on statistical analysis. In June 2006, it was estimated that a United Kingdom national team would have had a one-third greater chance of winning the 2006 World Cup, than England did at the tournament's outset.[2] Opponents of the plan argue that the existing footballing identities of the fans of the Home Nations should not be sacrificed simply to stand a better chance of success.
 
It's because the UK is a union of different countries, not provinces or autonomous states. You could apply the same argument to a European team made up of all EU member countries.
 
It's funny, because I'm pretty sure that in most European countries, the term "English/Englishmen" is used to refer to Brits in general. In France, we say "les Anglais" (the Englishmen), to designate the general population of Britain ; quite sure it's the same in Italian, Spanish or German. Of course, if there's a need to be more specific, then we'll use the correct designation (Scot, Welsh, etc). However, in French, we would use Irish for both Northern and Southern Irish, always because of the geography (it's the same island)

It means that in the european collective conscience Englishmen=Brits, I know that is the ultimate heresy here...:D
 
...there's going to be a GB sevens side participating at Rio so we'll see ;)

It's essentially a different sport to Rugby Union 15's so the independnence of national governing bodies is not under threat, unlike the GB football team participating at London Olympics where only the English and Welsh took part.
 
Cristobal said:
It's funny, because I'm pretty sure that in most European countries, the term "English/Englishmen" is used to refer to Brits in general. In France, we say "les Anglais" (the Englishmen), to designate the general population of Britain ; quite sure it's the same in Italian, Spanish or German. Of course, if there's a need to be more specific, then we'll use the correct designation (Scot, Welsh, etc). However, in French, we would use Irish for both Northern and Southern Irish, always because of the geography (it's the same island)

It means that in the european collective conscience Englishmen=Brits, I know that is the ultimate heresy here...:D
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Out of curiosity do the French ever refer to us as perfidious Albion?
 
flobberdob said:
Out of curiosity do the French ever refer to us as perfidious Albion?
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Absolutely, you can often read this expression in (serious) newspapers: "La perfide Albion", when journalists want to mock England or when there is tension or a competitive situation between France and Britain. Although, since the Brexit referendum, I did not ear or read the expression at all.

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfide_Albion
The French version of the wikipedia article (a lot different than the English one) gives many reasons to justify this expression ...:D
 
Cristobal said:
Absolutely, you can often read this expression in (serious) newspapers: "La perfide Albion", when journalists want to mock England or when there is tension or a competitive situation between France and Britain. Although, since the Brexit referendum, I did not ear or read the expression at all.

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfide_Albion
The French version of the wikipedia article (a lot different than the English one) gives many reasons to justify this expression ...:D
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The French seem to love to hate us English :)
 
UKRob said:
So Cristobal - I know you have Grande Bretagne and Royaume Uni - but are you saying there is no French word for Britons?
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The translation of British is "britannique", so we call the British "les Britanniques". According to Wikipedia, the translation for Britons is "Britanniques" as well.
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Britanniques

Nevertheless, in France, there is Brittany (Bretagne, a region historically populated by the celtic Britons from Britain, between the IIIrd and the VIth century) and the inhabitants of this region are called "Bretons", which is very close to "Britons". In fact, they are Britons...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bretons

So we can say that the real Britons are in France...:D
 
Well I'm not sure I agree with the last two sentences - but the great in Great Britain certainly stems from it's geographical position and size compared to Brittany.

By the way, it's not just the French who use 'English' as a catch all for British people, Americans do it all the time and I imagine it would piss me off if I were Welsh, Scottish or from NI.
 
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