Women’s football would benefit from a Team GB at Tokyo 2020

Andrew RT Davies – Leader of the Welsh Conservatives

There’s been a passionate response to my comments last week about the development of women’s football, and in particular the lack of a Team GB side at the Rio Olympics this year.

I firmly believe that it was a missed opportunity for the promotion and development of the game, and I’ll expand on my reasons in this article.

But I also want to set the record straight, because as a Wales fan first and foremost, I would fight tooth and nail against any proposal that I thought threatened our independence as a football nation.

To be in favour of an Olympic Team GB is not to be against Team Wales, and it’s unhelpful to suggest that it is.

No-one has a copyright on ‘the right way’ to support their team.

I have read many articles on the subject of a Team GB football side over the years – for and against – so I’m up to speed with the arguments, and I do accept that not everyone shares my point of view.

But what I find frustrating is the fact that 99% of all articles against the idea – including the robust piece by the Dragon’s Fire – start with the proposition that a Team GB for Olympic Games would inevitably lead to the end of Wales as an independent football nation. I simply don’t accept that.

We had British teams at London 2012, both men and women, and no threat to our independence has emerged, despite the very same concerns being expressed just as vociferously at the time

We’ve also had written and verbal assurances from FIFA that entry wouldn’t compromise the independence or status of our national associations, and we could certainly seek further formal assurances as a pre-condition of entry in the future.

But most of all, a permanent Team GB would not be foisted on us because no-one wants it. Not week-in-week-out.

Not only would it wipe away over a hundred years of footballing history – from our extraordinary efforts in France this year, to England’s historic victory back in 1966 – it could cost the game billions of pounds in future earnings, and money talks.

The beautiful game is a multi-billion-pound industry, after all. Just look at the latest TV deal for coverage of the Premier League.

The English, Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish sides are lucrative longstanding ‘brands’ for the game and for FIFA. To consign those iconic teams to the scrap heap would be financial self-harm on a devastating scale, which is why it would never happen.

So let’s get back to what I’ve been proposing, which is the entry of Team GB into the women’s football competition once every four years.

As I said last week, Rio 2016 was an incredible opportunity to promote women’s football on the biggest stage.

Is there a single person out there who would argue that the women’s game across the UK is in such rude health that we can afford to pass up this kind of chance to build momentum, or to develop the grassroots and increase the tournament experience of our best players?

This was a chance to build on the development of the sport here in Wales, and indeed across the UK, with a British team to inspire a new generation to get involved.

It would have been an opportunity to build on the successes of our men’s team this summer. And a chance for players like Jess Fishlock to get major tournament experience, and represent Team GB in the way that so many other Welsh sports stars do at the Olympics.

And whilst there are critics who complain that Welsh players would be outnumbered by players from England or the rest of the UK, the current impasse means that no-one takes part – and everyone misses out.

Besides, Olympic teams are selected on merit once every 4 years to represent the whole of Great Britain, and the vast majority of us happily support them on that basis.

Sir Bradley Wiggins may not be Welsh, but he is British and his impact on the Olympic Games will have encouraged thousands of new people to take up cycling over the years. Much in the same way that Jade Jones’ success in 2012 (and again this month) will be a huge boost to Tae Kwando right across the UK – not just here in Wales.

Sadly, politics and nationalism got in the way again this summer and everyone missed out, as we watched Sweden take the place at the Olympics that the England team had earned after their performance at last year’s World Cup.

All that was required was the unanimous agreement of the four home nations, and we would have been able to compete together as Team GB this year.

Instead, while Sweden’s women were knocking out the hosts in front of 70,000 fans and a TV audience of tens of millions around the world many of us were at home wondering what might have been…

The women’s game doesn’t get too many chances to access a captive audience of that size.

That’s why we need to see a sensible discussion ahead of the next Olympic Games in Tokyo.

Whilst politics and sport often make uncomfortable bedfellows, there is a role that could be played by the UK Government and devolved institutions to ensure the unique identity of our sporting nations would not be compromised by competing as Team GB.

So let’s get round the table and thrash out a water-tight way forward which satisfies everyone.

Surely that would give us the best of both worlds?