Brown: 'No to unified Olympics team'
Updated on 15 December 2008
Former Scotland manager Craig Brown has called for all four home nations to be represented separately in the 2012 Olympic football tournament.
Brown launched a petition against the formation of a unified British team at the London Games.
As it stands, only English players would represent Team GB as the governing bodies in the other three home nations - Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales - have refused to become involved.
He said: "There is a forthcoming, important Fifa meeting and I think, if they realise this is not going to happen, they may reassess the football in the Olympics.
"It would be great if they said 'we'll invite you all to take part, each country, since it's based in the UK'."
"The other compromise is not acceptable to me, that is to have a play-off and the winning country goes. That's far too much football for the best players.
He added: "And then they could say 'right, have a play-off for the European Championships, have a play-off for the World Cup' and only one of the four home nations would go."
The UK Government have recently received assurances from Fifa that a unified British team would not threaten the independence of the four nations.
But Fifa president Sepp Blatter has previously been quoted saying the opposite and Brown is unconvinced by the apparent guarantees.
Brown added: "I'm opposed to it because, first of all, I'm a very patriotic Scot and I want to retain the autonomy of the Scottish national team.
"I don't want it to be diluted in any way through a combination of other countries."
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