A Great Britain Football Team in Beijing?

There has been a lot of fuss about the entering of a football team for London 2012, but there is a very real possibility that England will secure a place for Great Britain at Beijing 2008. But, will the Football Associations put aside their differences to enable the team to play?

Form

England qualified, for the playoffs, from Group 8 ahead of Switzerland and Moldova. In the palyoff, England beat Germany to qualify for the UEFA European U-21 Championship.

Qualification

In October, England, Italy, Portugal, Serbia, the Czech Republic, Belgium and Israel teams made it through the UEFA European U-21 Championship play-off stage, to join hosts and defending champions the Netherlands in the UEFA European U-21 Championship. The top four teams in the finals will qualify for Beijing 2008. The competition is to be held between 10 and 23 June 2007.

The Men's Olympic Football is a 16 team competition. The remainder of the teams will come from:

Asia (AFC): 4 teams will qualify – including host nation China PR
Africa (CAF): 3 teams will qualify
North and Central America (CONCACAF): 2 teams will qualify
South America (CONMEBOL): 2 teams will qualify
Oceania (OFC): 1 team will qualify

What to Watch

For us, Football is not a major Olympic sport. We may look to get tickets for a preliminary game, but there are much better opportunities to see medals during the final days. Football is a passion, and we do watch it on the television, but there are better opportunities to see this sport live. I suspect that he Chinese will fill every ground.