Valcke urges unified Team GB

FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke wants the British football associations to let their players compete for Team GB at the London Games.

The Scottish, Welsh and Irish Football Associations fear losing their independent status in world football if they allow their players to compete for Great Britain – alongside England – at the Olympics.

But while he claimed to understand their concerns, Valcke said the associations needed to allow their players to compete.

“Let the players play. If they want to play, let them,” Valcke told BBC Sport on Monday.

“For the players, when you are 20, 21, 23, it’s a dream. And that’s what we have to respect.”

“You can always understand (the associations’ concerns) but you still hope … we should forget about these problems when you’re talking about an event like the Olympic Games.”

Only seven of 191 players turned down the opportunity to represent Team GB when the English Football Association wrote in January asking if they would be available.

Ryan Giggs and David Beckham were reportedly among those who accepted, and Valcke said the team needed to have representatives from across all four associations.

“There’s a team and this team should be composed by the four British associations. We finalised an agreement between the four British associations and FIFA. It took a long time – there was a lot of exchange of letters and things said, and a lot of words used in this period,” Valcke said.

“Now it’s up to the coach and the FA to finalise the composition of this team, but it should be a representation of a country.”

Critics have questioned whether Los Angeles Galaxy midfielder Beckham deserves a place on the team, but Valcke dismissed suggestions the 36-year-old only wanted to go for marketing reasons.

“I don’t think Beckham is going for commercial reasons. I’m sure that’s not the point,” he said.

“I’m sure that if he wants to play for the Olympic team it’s because he would love to become an Olympic champion.”