One step closer to an Olympic team
By: Ian Rose | May 7th, 2007Oh, yeah, and independence too.
So, for those of you that have been hiding under a rock and thus not paying attention to Scottish parliamentary politics, you should know that the Scottish Nationalist Party, the SNP, became the leading party in parliament for the first time ever. Their primary issue has always been independence from Britain, and it looks likely that a ballot measure on the issue will now be going to Scottish voters at some point in the near future. There are those in both England and Scotland with strong views on both sides - some saying that Scotland is a welfare state that Britain is better off without, and some saying that we have been paying British taxes to support things like the war in Iraq for far too long and would be better off alone. Regardless, let’s keep focused on what matters here - football.
There are two major football points that go along with independence talk. First and foremost, Scottish independence would be the last nail in the terrible idea of a UK national team. Gordon Brown, once a Scot and a Tartan Army supporter but now clearly neither, has come out in favor of a Three Lions team that could absorb Scottish players. Maybe once that would seem attractive to some … but when Scotland sits as one of the top twenty national teams in the world? No. Not now, not ever. The second important point is the possibility of a long-held dream, a Scottish Olympic program. This includes, of course, not only football, but all sports. It’s hard to imagine a greater glory than a Scottish national team beating England, at ANYTHING, at the 2012 games in London. That may be a little soon, but still, if the SNP can win a majority, anything can happen.
Category: Scottish Premier League
Tags: 2012 Olympic Games, Alba Gu Brath, Gordon Brown, London, Olympics, Politics, Scotland, Scottish Premier League, SNPSubscribe
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I know you don’t want to imagine it, but here is a question for you. If Scotland were to join forces with England for a “national” team (minus Wales, N. Ireland) who from the current Scottish side would be on the team?
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Well, that depends on who would manage this hypothetical team. If that job continued to fall on Steve McClaren, who seems to prefer uninterested superstars to dedicated young talent, I doubt any of them would make it. If, on the other hand, a cleverer coach was discovered (say, at a high school level in San Marino), I think that players like Gary Naysmith and Paul Hartley would have good shots. Frankly, I’d like to see an England-Scotland “friendly” (though it would hardly be that) - the Lions look like such rubbish lately that my money would probably be on the Scots.
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