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England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland fans against the formation
of a Great Britain Football Team for the 2012 Olympics |
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Press Statement 18th December 2008 FOR IMMEDIATE USE JOINT STATEMENT FROM THE NoTeamGB.com CAMPAIGN, WHICH CONSISTS OF THE FOLLOWING GROUPS: The Association of Tartan Army clubs (ATAC - Scotland) Football Supporters Federation (FSF - England) Football Supporters Federation Cymru (FSF - Wales) and Amalgamation of Official NI Fans Clubs (AONISC - Northern Ireland) The NoTeamGB.com campaign is today calling on FIFA Vice-President Geoff Thompson to correctly represent the views of the majority of the UK Football Associations at the FIFA meeting in Tokyo. The FIFA Vice Presidency is just one of the special dispensations that the UK Football Associations could lose, if any vote to allow a Team GB to compete at the 2012 Olympic games goes ahead. Spokesman Tam Ferry continued;" Geoff Thompson was democratically elected as FIFA Vice-President by the FA, SFA, FAW and IFA to represent the views of the 4 home nations. The majority of the Associations are against the formation of a Team GB for the London 2012 Olympics as this dangerous precedent which could lead to the extinction of Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland in the world of Football. Mr. Thompson was elected to represent the views of the UK Football Associations and any failure to represent the majority of opinion is an abuse of his elected position. We would like to see Mr. Thompson today publically speak out against political interference from the UK Government and the BOA, and to represent the best interests of the Associations, which is preserving our footballing independence. It's also interesting to note that, of those people most involved in pushing for the inclusion of a football Team GB in the 2012 Olympics, two of the main proponents actually sit on both FIFA and Olympic related boards! Sepp Blatter is a full Board member of the IOC and Seb Coe is head of FIFA's ethics committee. It would be like Turkeys voting for Christmas for Mr. Thompson to back a Team GB football team. This dangerous precedent could be the catalyst which brings to the fore the question as to why England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have so much power in FIFA when they aren't 'really' independent countries, which is a requirement for every other member of FIFA. This could lead to a 2/3rds majority vote at a FIFA General meeting which would be enough to see our National Teams disappear forever. The very existence of our International teams could lie in the hands of Mr. Thompson and we ask him to recognize this, and fight for the future our England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland by issuing a resounding 'hands off' statement to FIFA, the BOA and the UK Government. Yours in sport www.NoTeamGB.com Spokesman - Tam Ferry (ATAC) - 07984 510033 Other contacts; Malcolm Clarke, FSF - 0870277777 Gary McAllister, AoNISC - 07760233011 Paul Corkery, FSF Cymru - 07903619654 |
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