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Team GB, or No Team GB, That Is The Question: Olympic Football and the Post-War Crisis of Britishness

2012; Routledge; Volume: 32; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/17460263.2012.681357

1746-0271

Neil Ewen,

Sports, Gender, and Society

Abstract This article explores the furore surrounding the proposed creation of a 'Team GB' football team for the London 2012 Olympics, contextualizing it historically within the post-war crisis of Britishness. Acknowledgements Thanks to the peer reviewer, Martin Polley and Shelley Cobb for their helpful comments and advice. Notes 1. 'London Beats Paris to 2012 Games', BBC Online, July 6, 2005, available at http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/front_page/4655555.stm 2. Dominic Lawson, 'The tower and the Olympic curse', The Sunday Times, April 4, 2010. 3. James Lyons, 'Credit crunch hits London 2012 Olympics: MPs call for "Austerity" Games', Daily Mirror, November 14, 2008. 4. 'People "doubt Olympic benefits"', BBC Online, April 3, 2008, available at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7327693.stm; 'Beijing 2008: A hard act of follow?', BBC Online, August 26, 2008, available at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7579381.stm 5. 'Public "must back 2012 Olympics"', BBC Online, June 3, 2008, available at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7433164.stm 6. 'London 2012 clarifies number of tickets to be sold in second phase', Guardian, June 8, 2011, available at http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/jun/08/london-2012-thousands-tickets-sale 7. Steve Menary, GB United? British Olympic Football and the End of the Amateur Dream (Durrington: Pitch, 2010). 8. Ian Bell, 'Lord Coe is whistling in the wind', Sunday Herald, July 27, 2008. 9. 'FA eyes British football team', BBC Online, May 15, 2003, available at http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/internationals/3032321.stm 10. Michael Lynch, Scotland: A New History (London: Century, 1991), 360. 11. Angus Wright, 'Irish Join Scots in Opposing GB Team', The Scotsman, October 30, 2007. 12. Andrew Fraser, 'GB "needs Olympic football team"', BBC Online, August 20, 2003, available at http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olympics_2004/olympics_2012/3132933.stm 13. 'Coe's GB United claim denied', BBC Online, BBC Online, December 17, 2004, available at http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/olympics_2012/4101949.stm 14. Stephen Halliday, 'Smith happy to toe SFA line on Team GB in 2012', The Scotsman, June 9, 2007. 15. 'FIFA veteran opposed to GB team', BBC Online, October 31, 2007, available at http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/sport1/hi/football/7071200.stm; Graham Spiers, 'David Taylor warns Team GB could spell the end for Scotland', The Times, August 29, 2008. 16. http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/sport1/hi/football/internationals/7611621.stm; BBC Radio Scotland, Sportsound, November 12, 2008. 17. Graham Spiers, 'Gordon Brown's Team Great Britain team-talk is ruled offside', The Times, August 26, 2008. 18. 'Caborn backs GB team', BBC Online, January 16, 2004, available at http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olympics_2004/olympics_2012/3403565.stm 19. 'Put politics aside and back British football team, urges sports minister', The Guardian, June 23, 2011, available at http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/jun/23/british-olympic-football-minister-2012 20. 'NI manager Worthington happy for stars to play for GB', BBC Online, June 23, 2011, available at http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olympics/london_2012/13886352.stm; 'Gareth Bale seeks GB Olympic team place in defiance of Welsh FA', The Guardian, May 28, 2011, available at http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/may/28/gareth-bale-gb-olympic-team; Louise Taylor, 'Craig Brown says GB football team puts Scotland side in jeopardy', The Guardian, June 22, 2011; 'Olympic football not for Scotland's Julie Fleeting', BBC Online, June 24, 2011, available at http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/scotland/13905974.stm 21. Michael Billig, Banal Nationalism (London: Sage, 1995), 5. 22. http://football.guardian.co.uk/breakingnews/feedstory/0,,-7370328,00.html 23. 'Nations pave way for 2012 GB Team', BBC Online, May 29, 2009, available at http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/sport1/hi/olympic_games/8072981.stm 24. 'BOA close to deal for GB football team to appear at London 2012', Daily Mail, June 19, 2011. 25. Mark Ogden, 'United will take the money and run out of Africa', The Guardian, July 26, 2008, available at http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2008/jul/26/manchesterunited.portsmouth. 26. '"Greatest manager" Ferguson should coach GB football team, says Caborn', The Guardian, November 13, 2008, available at http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/nov/13/olympics2012-sir-alex-ferguson 27. 'Why is there no GB Olympic football team?', BBC Online, August 13, 2008, available at http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/sport1/hi/olympics/football/7529807.stm 28. 'Sebastian Coe: David Beckham could lead British team at London 2012', The Guardian, January 2, 2011, available at http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/jan/02/sebastian-coe-david-beckham-london-2012; 'Sir Bobby Charlton wants to help build GB Olympic football team', The Guardian, February 7, 2011, available at http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/feb/07/bobby-charlton-great-britain-football-olympics. 29. John Ferguson, 'Let Scotland team represent Britain at London Olympics, says Cathy Jamieson', Daily Record, August 25, 2008. 30. 'Olympic football play-offs call', BBC Online, November 9, 2008, available at http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/scotland/7718728.stm 31. Mike Burnett, 'Coe hopeful on GB football team', BBC Online, December 12, 2005, available at http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/internationals/4523318.stm. 32. Phillip Johnstone, 'Brown's Manifesto For Britishness', Daily Telegraph, January 13, 2007. 33. Martin Samuel, 'O'Neill is right for the job – but don't pretend he's English', News of the World, February 12, 2006. 34. Hamish Macdonell, 'Anti-Scottish Feeling Laid Bare Over Question of Next Prime Minister', The Scotsman, October 16, 2006 35. See the introduction to Tom Bower, Gordon Brown (London: HarperCollins, 2004). 36. 'McConnell explains England stance', BBC Online, May 25, 2006, available at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/5014996.stm 37. See, for example: Kofi Anan, 'Football Envy at the UN', The Guardian, June 12, 2006; Timothy Garton Ash, 'There is Some Corner of a Spanish Field That is Forever Beckham', The Guardian, June 22, 2006; Jonathan Freedland, 'We Must Not Give Cameron the Chance to Tear Our Country Apart', The Guardian, July 5, 2006. 38. Ewan Murray, 'I Won't Support England Either Says Smith', The Guardian, May 26, 2006; Hamish Macdonell, 'Tartan Army Fury Over Change to Lyrics', The Scotsman, July 17, 2006. 39. Lorna Martin, 'Tartan Army Fans Insure For £1m Against England Win', The Guardian, May 28, 2006. 40. Martin Kelner, 'How Call-Me-Tony Put a Glottal Stop to Chiles Play', The Guardian, June 20, 2006; Duncan Mackay, 'Home Nations in Conflict After British Olympic Football Team Gets Go-Ahead', The Guardian, September 30, 2006. 41. James Hastings, 'It's a Sin to Cheer England Defeats', Daily Record, May 31, 2006. 42. 'Faces of the week', BBC Online, August 18, 2006, available at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/5262292.stm. 43. Frank Urquhart, 'Aberdeen Leaders Condemn Anti-English Attacks in City', The Scotsman, July 6, 2006; Dean Herbert, 'Vulnerable Teenage Boy Attacked For Wearing England Top', The Scotsman, July 19, 2006. 44. Jackie Dent, 'Blair Condemns Attacks on England Supporters', The Guardian, June 21, 2006. 45. David Smith, 'Newsnight's Car Stunt Sparks Police Enquiry', The Observer, July 9, 2006. 46. Murray, 'I Won't Support England Either Says Smith'. 47. 'Gordon Brown Answers Your Questions', The Independent, August 4, 2007. 48. Mark Lawson, 'Three Lions. Who's King?', The Guardian, June 9, 2006, available at http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2006/jun/09/comment.conservatives 49. Andrew Rawnsley, 'Why Gordon Brown Decided It Was The Time To Go Nuclear', The Observer, June 25, 2006. 50. Hugo Young, This Blessed Plot: Britain and Europe From Churchill to Blair (London: Macmillan, 1998) pp 5–7. 51. David Lodge, Therapy (London: Penguin, 1996), 22. 52. See, for example: T.M. Devine, The Scottish Nation 1700–2000 (London: Allen Lane); Christopher Harvie, Scotland and Nationalism: Scottish Society and Politics 1707 to the Present, 4th edn (London: Routledge, 2004); John Davies, A History of Wales (London: Penguin, 2007); Martin Johnes, A History of Wales Since 1939 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2012). 53. Paul Ward, Britishness Since 1870 (London: Routledge, 2004). 54. Dominic Sandbrook, Never Had It So Good: A History of Britain From Suez to the Beatles (London: Little, Brown, 2005), 46–7. 55. For a flavour of this literature, see Peter Hitchens's The Abolition of Britain (London: Quartet, 2000; 2008) and The Abolition of Liberty: The Decline of Order and Justice in England (2004). 56. Paul Gilroy, After Empire: Melancholia or Convivial Culture? (London: Routledge, 2004), 27, 98. 57. Raphael Samuel, Patriotism, 3 vols. (London: Routledge, 1989). 58. Linda Colley, Britons: Forging the Nation, 1707–1837 (London: Yale University Press, 1992). 59. Norman Davies, The Isles: A History (London: Macmillan, 1999). 60. Tom Nairn, The Break-Up of Britain (London: NLB, 1977; 2nd edn, Verso, 1982); After Britain: New Labour and the Return of Scotland (London: Granta, 2000). 61. Andrew Marr, Ruling Britannia: The Failure and Future of British Democracy (London: Penguin, 1996); The Day Britain Died (London: Profile, 2000). 62. Richard Weight, Patriots: National Identity in Britain 1940–2000 (London: Macmillan, 2000). 63. Michael Gardiner, The Cultural Roots of British Devolution (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press). 64. Neal Ascherson, Stone Voices: The Search for Scotland (London: Granta, 2002). 65. Gordon Brown, British Council annual lecture, 7 July 2004, available at http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2004/jul/08/uk.labour1; Gordon Brown, 'Mansion House speech', 16 June 2004, available at http://62.164.176.164/1534.htm 66. Brown, British Council lecture. 67. Will Hutton, 'Our Britishness Can Beat the Bombers', The Observer, July 31, 2005'. 68. Simon Barnes, 'Second in importance only to the Prime Minister? The eyes have it …', The Times, December 14, 2007. 69. See, for example: Richard Holt, Sport and the British: A Modern History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989); Richard Holt and Tony Mason, Sport in Britain 1945–2000 (Oxford: Blackwell, 2000); Martin Polley, Moving the Goalposts: A History of Sport and Society Since 1945 (London: Routledge, 1998); Adrian Smith and Dilwyn Porter, eds., Sport and National Identity in the Post-War World (London: Routledge, 2004). 70. Polley, Moving the Goalposts, 35. See also Smith and Porter, Sport and National Identity, introduction. 71. John Garland, 'The Same Old Story? Englishness, the Tabloid Press and the 2002 Football World Cup', Leisure Studies 23, no. 1, Jan 2004, 79–92; Liz Crolley, David Hand and Ralf Jeutter, 'Playing the Identity Card: Stereotypes in European Football', Soccer and Society 1, no. 2 (Summer 2000), 107–28; Jonathan Dart, 'Review Essay: Tackling a Nation's Football History', The International Journal of the History of Sport 26, no. 11 (September 2009), 1748–57. 72. See, for example, Michael L. Silk, David L. Andrews and C.L. Cole, eds., Sport and Corporate Nationalisms (Oxford: Berg, 2005). 73. See England Football Online at http://www.englandfootballonline.com/TeamHons/HonsRepTms.html 74. Holt, Sport and the British, 237. 75. Holt and Mason, Sport in Britain, ch. 6. 76. Weight, Patriots, 462–3, 556–7. 77. See, for example: H. Moorhouse, 'One State, Several Countries', The International Journal of the History of Sport 12, no. 2 (1995), 55–74; Grant Jarvie and Graham Walker, eds., Scottish Sport in the Making of the Nation: Ninety-Minute Patriots? (Leicester: Leicester University Press, 1994). 78. Martin Johnes, A History of Sport in Wales (Cardiff: University of Wales, 2005). 79. 'Police fears for "Anyone But England" T-Shirt', BBC Online, February 24, 2010, available at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/north_east/8533791.stm; 80. Ryan Crighton, 'Attacks on English a disgrace to north-east', The Press and Journal, June 17, 2010. 81. 'HMV remove Anyone But England gear from stores', BBC Online, June 19, 2010, available at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/10357018.stm 82. Gerry Hassan, 'To be Scottish should not be about being anti-English', The Guardian, June 23, 2010, available at http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jun/23/anyone-but-england-scottish?showallcomments=true#start-of-comments.