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Highlighting his debate in Westminster Hall, SNP MP Peter Wishart outlines the case against creating a single British football team for the 2012 Olympics.
One day I will never forget was the day of my Hampden baptism, which took place on May 2, 1972.
Scotland was playing England in the old home internationals and I will never forget how the whole of the south side of Glasgow reverberated to the Hampden roar. It was a great day, only slightly marred by Alan Ball coming from nowhere to score the only goal and win the game for England.
The Scottish international football team unites the nation like nothing else in our country. Our job as football-supporting legislators must be to do absolutely nothing that would threaten this, even inadvertently. At all times the precautionary principle must be deployed.
We have to give no hint of a precedent that may be used against us in the future.
We must give absolutely no excuse to those envious and unhappy about our separate status as a national football side, and we must give no comfort to those who already complain about our generous arrangements in the UK.
In proposing a 'Team GB' football team for the 2012 Olympics, the government is doing the exact opposite. They are setting a precedent and they are giving the excuse to others to question our separate arrangements. They should simply just stop.
I can imagine a future FIFA board, under pressure from emerging nations, asking why it is possible for the teams of the UK to merge for the Olympics but not for the World Cup?
Proponents of a 'Team GB' say that there are assurances from FIFA that any arrangement for the Olympics would not affect our independent standing. That is only binding, however, on this current FIFA board, not the next, or the one after that.
Sepp Blatter, current FIFA president, also recently candidly admitted that any Team GB would, of course, "jeopardise" our separate standings.
Football is not a big deal in the Olympics, it is contested by only under-23s, it does not involve the current stars and is a bit of a side show in the Olympics.
Why should we undermine our independent status for an almost 'non-competition' which is next to meaningless in international football?
If the UK wants football participation in London, then let all the home nations compete. This is what happened in London in 1908.
This is surely the sensible way forward that would do nothing to threaten our teams. Its time for the government to get on the right side on this issue.
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