Olympic gold still far from football’s top honour

HISTORY, animosity and speculation have created more interest in the Olympic football tournament than the actual on-the-field action will warrant.

Great Britain will be represented by a united football team at an Olympics for the first time since 1960 on the men’s side, and for the first time in the women’s game.

The football associations of Northern Ireland and Scotland reacted angrily to suggestions that their players should wear the red, white and blue of a united kingdom.

David Beckham wanted desperately to play in an Olympics a free-kick away from where he grew up, but was seemingly strung along until the 11th hour and then dramatically snubbed.

When the brouhaha finally quietens down, a football tournament will break out on the evening before the opening ceremony, some 160 miles away from the epicentre of the Games in London.

Great Britain’s men’s team kick-off the action against Senegal at Manchester’s Old Trafford stadium on Thursday, July 26.

The 18 men who will represent Britain were named by the head coach Stuart Pearce yesterday.

Thirteen Englishmen – including two Yorkshiremen – five Welshmen, no Northern Irishmen and no Scotsmen.

Doncaster-born Danny Rose and Leeds’s Micah Richards are among the chosen few.

And despite Huddersfield striker Jordan Rhodes now being a Scotland international and their Football Association’s hardline stance on the unity of the home nations, the explosive striker named in Pearce’s provisional 35-man squad is believed to be one of his four reserves.

Manchester City defender Richards is one of three over-23s in the squad, the experienced trio Beckham so desperately hoped to be among. Ryan Giggs and Craig Bellamy are the other two.

Tottenham’s Rose is one of those bright young things that Pearce is unleashing on a senior football tournament for the first time.

The United Arab Emirates and Uruguay make up Great Britain’s round-robin group, with games to be played at Wembley and Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium.

Lacking the stature of a big football tournament like the one just finished in eastern Europe, and being contested by players who often compete against each other on the international stage, this Olympic excursion for the GB football team has courted intrigue rather than excitement.

There is also the argument that an Olympic Games should be a sport’s highest honour.

In football it is nowhere near the greatest accolade.

Even if Pearce leads his men to glory at Wembley during the Olympics, they will not be revered like the Spanish artisans who gloriously won Euro 2012.

Yesterday, at the unveiling of the latest batch of British Olympians, Pearce was forced to defend his omission of the one-time golden boy of English football.

He confirmed there had been no political pressure on him to select Beckham – who faces a four-match MLS ban for sparking a brawl while on duty for LA Galaxy – and would not have accepted the job if there had been.

Until last week it was widely expected that Beckham’s star quality and devotion to the Olympic cause would be enough to earn him one of the three over-age spots in Pearce’s squad.

But the England Under-21 boss said his selections – Richards, Giggs and Bellamy – were made solely by him and exclusively for footballing reasons.

“From the outset, when I sat down with the (Football Association) chairman David Bernstein, some time before Christmas, he offered me the opportunity to pick the squad,” he said.

“If at that stage he had said to me that certain individuals would have to be included I certainly wouldn’t do that job. I don’t know any manager worth their salt who would have.

“Right through this process I have had carte blanche to pick whatever players I regard as best.

“I do enough hours watching matches and I think I’ve done due diligence on all the players here.

“And in regard to ticket sales and merchandise: I’m a football man and I pick solely on football ability.

“I have to back my opinion and that’s what I have done.”

Pearce said there would be no place on his staff for Beckham, due to a restriction on numbers in the backroom positions.

Pearce said: “With what he’s done to bring the bid to these shores, I for one would champion him for what he’s done.

“But we only have seven passes (for backroom staff). The players have to be prepared to come through the door on form alone and that happens to be the case with staffing too. They have their role to play.”

Team GB chef de mission Andy Hunt did reveal initial contact had been made with Beckham’s representatives with regard to an unspecified role at Games time, though. He said: “We’d be delighted and honoured to have David Beckham related to Team GB more broadly.”

On the thorny topic of the inclusion of Welsh and omission of Irish and Scottish players, Pearce said that tokenism never crossed his mind when selecting his squad.

He said: “I’ve got a list of names written down now, who I think ability-wise are good enough to do a job.

“I didn’t pick on personality, I didn’t pick on ticket sales and I certainly wasn’t picking on nationality.

“To be honest I cannot tell you how many players there are from England and Wales. There are 18 players who are all Olympians now and that’s the only way I view them.”

Pearce also brushed aside suggestions the Welsh supporters would not get behind the team.

“Whenever I’ve supported a GB member as an individual, I’ve never looked at their individual nationality, I see them as British participants and I hope that’s the case throughout our isles this summer,” he added.

Pearce will appoint a captain once the players meet for training.