User:Atban3000/Sandbox/Great Britain U-23s
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The Great Britain and Northern Ireland Olympic football team is the men's football team that represents the United Kingdom at the Summer Olympic Games (where it competes as Great Britain, currently branded Team GB). The team is organised by the English Football Association (FA) as the footballing representative of the British Olympic Association. The team is not a member of FIFA and only competes in the Olympic Games. In other international football tournaments, the Home Nations of the United Kingdom (England and wales) are represented by their own national teams, a situation which pre-dated the establishment of a GB team.
- This article is about British representation at Olympic football tournaments. For information about Britain in international football in general, see United Kingdom national football team
Nickname(s) | Team GB | ||
---|---|---|---|
Association | The FA (1908–1972; 2011–) | ||
Captain | Ryan Giggs | ||
Most caps | Jim Lewis (11) Mike Pinner (11)[1] | ||
Top scorer | Harry Walden (9) Jim Lewis (9)[1] | ||
| |||
First international | |||
Great Britain and Ireland 12 – 1 Sweden (London; 20 October 1908) | |||
Biggest win | |||
Great Britain and Ireland 12 – 1 Sweden (London; 20 October 1908) | |||
Biggest defeat | |||
Bulgaria 6 – 1 Great Britain (Melbourne, Australia; 30 November 1956) | |||
Olympic Games | |||
Appearances | 8[2] (first in 1908) | ||
Best result | Gold: 1908,[2] 1912[2] | ||
Website | Football at Team GB |
Olympic medal record | ||
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Men's Football | ||
1900 Paris | Team | |
1908 London | Team | |
1912 Stockholm[2] | 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 & 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. [3] In this period the team won the gold medal at the 1908 and 1912 tournaments, although exitted 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 1930.[1]
After the creation of the FIFA World Cup, it was agreed that Olympic football would become exclusively amateur,[4] 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.[1] In this period the team's best performance was 4th place in 1948 at the second Games hosted in London, under manager Matt Busby.[1]
After the FA abolished the distinction between amateur and professional players in 1974, it stopped entering a team. [3] By the 1992 games after various rule changes, teams could compete at the games using professionals, but restricted to under 23 years old, with only three over-23 players allowed per squad.[4] Despite this, Great Britain did not enter a football team again until London won the right to host the 2012 games.[5][6] The FA are once again organising the team, with Stuart Pearce appointed manager in October 2011.[7] A women's team will also compete for the first time at the 2012 Games.