Euro 2004 Official Thread

Originally posted by Spotnick For my own curiousity.. does the England team include Scotsland and Wales, or is it England only?Clearly remember that for historical reasons the teams are seperated at the Mundial, but I guess it's the same there?

You were right, u dont know anything about football . Its true that England, Wales, Sctland and Northern Ireland have seperate national teams (and leagues as well although the Welsh best teams do participate in the english national division and there's a certain discussion if top Scottish teames should participate in the English premier league) for historic reasons. There is only one exception to this and this is the olympics where u can see a UK national team (although the olympic football tournament doesnt have any big significance)...

in the olympics, however, i believe that northern irish athletes can compete for either great britain or ireland.

as europeans know, it's because of this football division that the british (but not english) ryan giggs disappears from sight for several months every two years.

The reason we are not allowed a British team is that FIFA would only allow this if we had a British league. As Wales, England and Scotland have separate leagues we must have a different national team for each. This is also why we cannot have a team in the olympics.

I think the old "Grandparents" stance still exists, unless you were born in Jersey, which automatically qualifies you to play for any home nation plus France. I thought Quashie's maternal grandmother had been to Scotland once, or something like that.

Originally posted by Slippy The reason we are not allowed a British team is that FIFA would only allow this if we had a British league. As Wales, England and Scotland have separate leagues we must have a different national team for each. This is also why we cannot have a team in the olympics.

I dont think FIFA would allow, say Spain, to have more than one national teams, even if Spain decided to have more than one leagues (in my exemple a Catalan, a Galician or a Basque one). Its an ecxeption the Brits themeselves want (and they defended it many times in the past when various coutries protested about it), and FIFA allows, as a recogntintion for their contribution of inventing the game as we know it today. Just FIFA doesnt want to encourage any others who might want to do the same ;) .

But, and this is quite a distinction, England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales are all distinct countries in their own rights, with their own political assemblies. The fact that together they make up the United Kingdom is irrelevant. Galicia, Catalunia and the Basque region are not recognised as separate countries yet, and probably never will be.

It's nothing to do with the fact that England invented football and special treatment from FIFA. All separate countries have to have separate teams - the USA is a collection of States bound by one constitution, rather than 50 separate countries. Montenegro are allowed to join with Serbia still, but they are the exception rather than the rule, and I suspect that has much to do with geographical delineation rather than politics.

I dont think that Wales are more independed than the Pais Vasco for example, in fact the Basques have an independed parliament with significant local power for some decades now, while the Welsh parliament is even newer and it is of less importance ;). By saying this, i m not suggesting that there is some kind of special treatment for UK which is unfair to the rest of the world or anything: I am just saying that there were already different leagues and football federations in the parts of UK, when FIFA was founded in 1904, so it would be the least weird, even kinda nervy for FIFA to ask the UK to do any changes - in fact the UK football federations didnt exacktly hurry up to join FIFA, as they were already more advanced by the time the rest of the world was starting to form their own (the Greek was in 1926 for example). So now, i dont think there's is even one serious football fan in the world that would ever like to see one UK national team instead of the 4 (and never see again England play vs Scotland for example :) ). As for players like Ryan Giggs, they ll probably continue to copy with staying out of major national teams tournaments, but thats what would happen to them if they were, say, from Malta (much much worse actually ).

Hey, this is an Euro thread, forget about the English/United Kingdom stuff. Together or separated they lose anyway, right?:p

...and how about of founding football national teams of GUERNSEY, ALDERNEY, ISLE OF MAN, JERSEY and SARK ? ...

Originally posted by Al Jarvis It's not that straight forward. If anyone's born within the UK they can theoretically play for any country within that domain. I don't think the likes of Quashie recently had any Scots in him at all - I may be wrong - but the Scots can pick him cos he's from the UK itself. Someone can probably quote some examples. I think Fitz Hall was called up for Scotland recently too? And, then of course, we might have our own national leagues but Swansea, Cardiff and Wrexham all play in the 'English' leagues. Indeed, I remember when Swansea were top, briefly. Long time ago now.Oh, and of course, the team with the highest number of hooligans on banning orders from following England to Portugal is, of course ... Cardiff!

No, you have to be from that country, have blood relations or citizeship. Quashies gran is scottish i think. The so called 'granny rule' has been exploited by smaller teams, especially the republic of Ireland.

But, if i was asked to play for scotland (which, on current form, could conceivably happen ) i couldnt because i have no scotch in me. But i am eligible to play for the republic of ireland, northern ireland and england. In football terms, the "United Kingdom" simply doesnt exist, except with regards to those from jersey.

Originally posted by Killer Clowns Wales National Team was knocked out in a playoff to reach the tournament by...was it Russia??? but they did make it further than Scotland!!!:p

Hold on there, they didn't get further! They just got gubbed by less once they got to the play offs!

Originally posted by Graeme > Originally posted by Killer Clowns> > Wales National Team was knocked out in a playoff to reach the tournament by...was it Russia??? but they did make it further than Scotland!!!:p

Hold on there, they didn't get further! They just got gubbed by less once they got to the play offs!

quite right, Graeme !

Did you watch the orange c*nts last night? Sad really, to think that Scotland lost to such a crap team.

There were cars going down the main road last night, tooting their horns like they've already bloody won the competition. Oh no, hang on, it must have been sheer relief that made them so happy, lucky gits

Originally posted by almanso it´s a mess really. the UK countries are one example. but what about the danish Faeroe Islands? what do we do about Cyprus? same thing could be asked about Surinam, Guyana, French Guiana...

Cuprus is a fully independent country (regardless the political issue and conflict there), Faeroes and the rest though, arent. Another exceptions i guess, kinda justified though if u consider the great distances between them and the rest of the main country ;) . Oh, and yeah, talking about football in this Euro, what u guys think of what Poborski did before he crossed the ball and Baros scored the equaliser against Latvia yesterday? If u ask me, its definetely THE higlight of the tournamnet so far .

And of course the best "player" award goes to...

The referees!

I'm still wondering how he saw a Russia's goalkeeper handle the ball outside the area with his hands when his hands were nowhere to be seen.

Found this lovely pic of some of the, err, supporters from Sweden............:)

She featured heavily on TV...

Hmmmmm... Sweden... *drools*

Originally posted by The Saviour ...and how about of founding football national teams of GUERNSEY, ALDERNEY, ISLE OF MAN, JERSEY and SARK ? ...

Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man have got them, but they choose not to compete in European competitions as it would be rather embarrassing. Jersey and Guernsey have their own Football Associations, which are affiliated to the English FA.

Originally posted by Detweiler 3.63 > Originally posted by The Saviour> ...and how about of founding football national teams of GUERNSEY, ALDERNEY, ISLE OF MAN, JERSEY and SARK ? ...

Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man have got them, but they choose not to compete in European competitions as it would be rather embarrassing. Jersey and Guernsey have their own Football Associations, which are affiliated to the English FA.

I didn't know they had teams! I doubt there would be enough space for a football pitch on Sark so that's why they haven't.

BTW Tim your rendition of LMA is very good - never really listened til I got the CD!

Rooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooney

Originally posted by The Haçienda must be (re)Built Rooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooney

It looks like Heskey is finished at international level.

Fingers crossed eh ?