The Great Britain Olympic football team is the men's football team that represents the United Kingdom at the Summer Olympic Games (where it competed as Great Britain, branded Team GB). The team is organised by the Football Association (the FA) as the men's footballing representative of the British Olympic Association. The team only competes in the Olympic Games. In other international football tournaments, the Home Nations of the United Kingdom are represented by their own national teams, a situation which pre-dated the establishment of a GB team.
The team first competed at the FA organised tournament for the 1908 Olympics held in London, which was the first games that featured representative teams using players selected nationally (prior games in 1900 and 1904 used club teams). This team and the two that followed in 1912 and 1920 featured only English amateur players, and is seen by some as merely an extension of the English amateur team, set up in 1906 in response to the rise of the professional game. In this period the team won the gold medal at the 1908 and 1912 tournaments, although exited at Round 1 in 1920. A dispute between the FA and FIFA over the inclusion of professionals saw the FA withdraw from Olympic football in 1924 and 1928, and saw no football at the Olympics at all in 1932.
After the creation of the FIFA World Cup, it was agreed that Olympic football would become exclusively amateur, leading to the team competing again in the 1936 Games, this time incorporating players from other Home Nations. After the break caused by World War II, the team then competed in every games from 1948 until 1972, albeit failing to qualify for the main tournament after 1960. In this period the team's best performance was fourth place in 1948 at the second Games hosted in London, under manager Matt Busby.
After the FA abolished the distinction between amateur and professional players in 1974, it stopped entering a team. By the 1992 Games teams could use professionals, but were restricted to players under 23 years old, with only three over-age players allowed per squad. Despite this change, Great Britain did not enter a football team again until London won the right to host the 2012 Games. The FA organised the team, with Stuart Pearce appointed manager.
A Great Britain women's team also competed at the 2012 and 2020 Games, following the introduction of women's football to the Games in 1996.
History
Origins The FA was formed in London 1863, when thirteen teams met to draw up a shared rule list for football, in order to facilitate matches between clubs. The question of the geographical remit of this organisation does not appear to have been asked, with the FA being formed before the rise of international football. The first football matches between national teams were arranged by the FA, who invited English and Scottish players to form representative teams. The Scottish teams were made up almost entirely of Scottish residents in England and in order to encourage more Scottish based players to compete, an organisation in Scotland was sought to form the Scottish team. For the 1872 game between Scotland and England in Glasgow, Queen's Park Football Club took on this role, and this game is now recognised as the first international match. Within a year, the Scottish Football Association (SFA) was founded to facilitate these matches, and to organise football in Scotland more broadly. The third national football association, the Football Association of Wales was founded in 1876 and a fourth, the Irish Football Association, (IFA), was founded in 1880.
The practice of playing internationals between the four countries of the United Kingdom (also known as the home nations) was thus developed before football associations were developed elsewhere in the world and, no 'United Kingdom football association' was ever formed. Outside of the UK, the first national associations were formed in 1889 (in Denmark and the Netherlands), and these also began to pick their own national teams. When football was included at the 1900 Olympics, however, many nations were still struggling to raise a team, and so club teams entered instead. Upton Park represented the UK, winning the gold medal.
1908–1936: First tournaments and Olympic Gold
For the 1908 Olympic Games in London, the FA persuaded the IOC to include an official football tournament, which they organised. A team, made up entirely of English players, was entered.Football at the 1908 London Olympics Sports-Reference.com Some sources continue to refer to this team as the England national amateur football team, whilst others still simply label all participations as Great Britain.Football Tournament of the Olympic Games – Overview RSSF; Retrieved 12 December 2008 Although the team competed as the United Kingdom and are listed as such, the official match report refers to "the English team". The British Olympic Council, 1908; Accessed 10 September 2011 The Scottish Football Association passed a resolution to "protest against one National body in the British Isles being termed the United Kingdom, or playing as such without the consent of the other three National Associations". The resolution was read at the next meeting of the International Football Association Board. In response, "[t]he Football Association representatives explained that this was the name given by the authorities, and that so far as the Football Association was concerned they had nothing to do with the matter. The Scottish Association were satisfied with this answer."
At the 1908 Olympics, "Great Britain and Ireland" won all three of their matches, defeating Sweden and Netherlands in the first two rounds. They met Denmark in the final, defeating them 2–0 with goals from Vivian Woodward and Frederick Chapman. Linguasport; Accessed 10 November 2011
The team repeated this success at the 1912 Games.Aarhus, Lars; Games of the IV Olympiad RSSSF, 15 October 1999; Retrieved 5 July 2006 Again, Britain won all three matches and defeated Denmark in the final, this time 4–2. Woodward, who scored in the previous final, was captain for this tournament. Linguasport; Accessed 10 November 2011
At the 1920 Summer Games, Britain lost in the first round in a surprise defeat to Norway. Britain had played only amateur players, while other nations selected their team from all available players. The tournament formed part of a rift which developed between the FA, who wanted the Olympics to remain an amateur only competition, and FIFA, who were keen on having a full football world championship. This resulted in the FA leaving FIFA, as well as withdrawing from the 1924 and 1928 football tournaments.Arnold, A.J. Tony. 2004. Harnessing the Forces of Commercialism: The Financial Development of the Football Association, 1863–1975 Sport in Society 7 (2) 232–248; Accessed 10 April 2010 (Subscription required) Eventually, however, an agreement was reached in which the Olympic football tournament would be for amateur players only, with the FIFA World Cup created to include all players, professional and amateur.
There was no football tournament at the 1932 games, so Britain's return to Olympic football came at the 1936 Summer Olympics. Great Britain were defeated in the quarter-finals, losing 5–4 to Poland.
1948–1972: Post war tournaments Following the Second World War, Great Britain competed in all Olympic football tournaments from 1948 through to 1972. The 1948 tournament, which was hosted in London, was the team's most successful. By this time, it was recognised that Britain's amateur players were not of the same quality as they had been in earlier years, due to the rise of the professional game. By contrast, teams in nations which had not yet developed professional leagues were able to field their strongest sides. Manager Matt Busby trained a squad made up of players from all of the 'home nations', and Britain progressed to the semi-final with wins over the Netherlands and France. Having lost the semi-final to Yugoslavia, Britain once again faced Denmark. This time, however, they were defeated 5–3 and missed out on a bronze medal. Linguasport; Accessed 10 November 2011 Wembley Stadium hosted Great Britain's final two matches, though they also played at Craven Cottage and Highbury.
After 1948, Great Britain were never a significant threat at the Olympics again. They were eliminated after losing their opening match to Luxembourg in 1952, and qualified for the 1956 only after other teams withdrew, before being beaten by Bulgaria in the quarter-finals. Their final appearance at an Olympic Games came in 1960. The squad was again selected from all of the home nations, with matches between the national amateur sides being used to choose a best 19. Great Britain were eliminated in the first round, losing one, drawing one and winning one of their three matches. After that Great Britain failed to qualify for the next three Olympics, with their final match being a 5–0 qualifying round defeat by Bulgaria in 1971 following a 1–0 victory at Wembley Stadium against the same team.
In 1974, the Football Association stopped recognising a distinction between professionals and amateurs, with all player subsequently registered simply as 'players', whether paid or unpaid. This ended the existence of the England amateur team, which had always been the basis for the British Olympic team. As such, the FA stopped entering a football team into Olympic competition.
1976–2008: Absence from the tournament For the 1984 Summer Olympics, professional footballers were allowed to compete at the Olympics for the first time. Initially, European and South American teams were banned from playing players who had competed in the FIFA World Cup, but from the 1992 Summer Olympics eligibility for all nations was restricted to players aged under 23, except that three players of any age are allowed in the squad.
Since 1992, the UEFA European Under-21 Championship has acted as the qualifying tournament for the UEFA nations, which each of the Home Nations enter. On four occasions, teams from Great Britain have finished in the qualifying positions:
1992 – 1996 – 2008 – 2024 –
In March 1996, the Scottish National Party proposed that the Scotland U21s should compete in the 1996 Olympics football tournament, having finished fourth in the 1996 UEFA European Under-21 Championship. Scotland would have qualified for the Summer Olympics football tournament twice in succession, having also finished fourth in the 1992 edition. The Scottish Football Association (SFA) opposed the idea of the Scotland team being sent to the Olympics as they would have had to participate as Great Britain, which the SFA considered would have jeopardised the independent status of Scottish national teams.
The British Olympic Association initially refused to rule out the possibility of entry for the 2008 Games, England would have qualified for the 2008 Olympics by reaching the semi-finals of the 2007 Under–21 Championship, but a team was not entered. Italy took their vacated place by winning a play-off match against Portugal. The England women's team also qualified for the 2008 Olympics, through their performance in the 2007 World Cup, but they were denied a place at the Olympics because the other three Home Nations refused to give their consent.
Reformation for London 2012