Legitimacy of England, Scotland, Wales and NI national teams

The whole team GB thing has brought up an interesting issue - the SFA, FAW and IFA have been bitching, saying they won't endorse this because it threatens their independence, it got me thinking, why should they have independence in the first place?

As a result of the UK having 4 associations (something no other sovereign territory has by the way), the UK gets 7-8 bites at the cherry in terms of Champions League qualification, a similar amount in the Europa League, 4 chances to win the European Championships, Confederations Cup and FIFA World Cup. More importantly, between these associations, they hold an equal amount of power to all of FIFA (which they are also represented by) in making the rules of the game, three cunts elected by insignificant associations (Wales, Scotland & Northern Ireland) can block any changes to the Laws of the game, regardless of what all the other associations in the world want.

The 4 associations also get a vice President on the FIFA executive committee.

My question is, why the fuck does the UK deserve these privileges? Isn't it about time that now, after over 100 years of International Football, that the UK was treated the same as every other sovereign nation in the world, and had one national team, and one UEFA coefficient, rather than getting all these massively unfair advantages over every other country? There's no reason today for Wales to have its own association, when a place like Catalunia doesn't, and there's certainly no justification for the UK to have 4.

So tell me your thoughts, do you people agree with me, that the UK should have one Association? Or is there a reason that in the 21st century they deserve special treatment?

Shut your fucking pie hole.

It's quite different from Cataluna, these countries have their own devolved governments, that makes them a separate state.

Sean wrote:It's quite different from Cataluna, these countries have their own devolved governments, that makes them a separate state.

No it fucking doesn't! England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are not States.

Alright keep your knickers on

Stupid Horse boy

USA has 50 'States', Germany has 16, why can't they have that amount of national teams?

I don't think the UK deserves the split, seems more of a "reward" from FIFA (maybe for standardizing the game, even though NI and Wales don't have much to do with it) than anything, unless these states have a sovereign government I don't see why their should be sovereign states, these places have representatives and local government but aren't they ruled under one "ruler" (the prime minister)?

ResurrectionRooney wrote:USA has 50 'States', Germany has 16, why can't they have that amount of national teams?

dena wrote:I don't think the UK deserves the split, seems more of a "reward" from FIFA (maybe for standardizing the game, even though NI and Wales don't have much to do with it) than anything, unless these states have a sovereign government I don't see why their should be sovereign states, these places have representatives and local government but aren't they ruled under one "ruler" (the prime minister)?

The Scottish Federation was established in 1873, The Welsh was established in 1876, the English in 1863, and the Northern Irish in 1880. FIFA on the other hand was established in 1904. All four of them are older than FIFA itself, and at the time of FIFA's creation these four were already well established and independent federations, and had established national teams of their own, a "right" they have never given up. You simply can't just "combine" them. Simply put, there's no way of denying their existence or "establishment" as they were established long before FIFA even existed, they were the first footballing federations in the world, and thus can not be denied their place in world football.

The reason Catelonia doesn't have it's own acknowledged federation is down to politics. Madrid football club (read Real Madrid) established "The Spanish federation" in the early 1900s (after Catelonia). The Spanish federation, representing all major clubs in the kingdom of spain at the time (1904), was one of the founding members of FIFA. Catelonia does have it's own association, it's just not recognized by FIFA.

The german federation was established in 1900, representing the "unified" Germany, and is also a founding member. Their position as "unified" was only challenged once by the split of West and East Germany (as I'm sure we all remember), but was once again united afterwards (obviously). There have been no attempt to "break away" from the DFB by anyone but a small group of clubs in the Danish regions who considered themselves Danish.

The US has never presented anything other than a unified organization across all of the country. No breakaway attempts have been made since it's establishment in 1913