Olympic Football: Team GB or not GB?

Coventry will be one of the proud hosts of the 2012 Olympic Football tournament at the City of Coventry Stadium, renamed especially for the games.

Vital Football will be looking ahead to the competition on a regular basis over the coming year and starts with the current debate over the make up of a Great Britain team.

Previously, the home nations have decided not to enter a team into the Olympic Football tournament as it was thought that could compromise their independent status with FIFA.

With Great Britain hosting the 2012 games however and qualifying automatically, the focus has moved on to how the team will be selected rather than if we would participate at all.

An agreement has been reached that will see the English FA manage the team and it is thought that only English players would be selected, allowing Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to maintain their status with FIFA (although football's top dog Sepp Blatter has said that a Great Britain team containing players from all the countries would not jeopardise that anyway).

However the British Olympic Association is keen for the team to represent all of the home nations and it is thought that plyers such as Gareth Bale of Wales are keen to play in such a prestigious competition.

This debate is set to run and run and also affects the womens team, with England captain Faye White telling BBC London recently: 'I think it is important that all countries are represented, and we put the best team in.

'What happens in the future, as a player, I can't really comment on, there's all the politics behind it. But I would really like to see the team go and do well at the Olympics.'

See the Olympics in Coventry by applying for tickets through through the official ticketing website.

Click here to join in the debate on the club forum.