Whenever the European or World Cup rolls around, how come you guys never send one single national team that represents the entire UK?

18 comments

1. Because there isn’t a single British Football Association. There’s the FA (for England), the Scottish FA, the Welsh have one too. Within those systems are different leagues that don’t interact with one another (though some Welsh teams play in the English system). Considering FAs are in charge of the international squad, it makes sense that there’d be seperate international sqauds.

   So there are separate governing bodies. Therefore, different national teams.

   Also, if there was one unified FA, 90% of the team would be English. Pretty unfair for the other countries.

2. Because in the early days it made more sense for internationals to be played between the UK nations. In 2022 there’s no appetite for it. We are rivals, have different league systems, different FAs etc.

3. [removed]

4. The first international match was between England and Scotland and since then I think people enjoy the rivalries of having them separate.

   So a lot of history behind it and no one really wants it to happen.

   It doesn’t help that in reality in would be mostly English players with 1 or 2 from the rest of the UK most of the time so those countries would lose their representation. (Come at me Scotland, Wales and NI)

5. The England team can represent the entire UK if you want. It’s somewhat relative.

6. For the same reason you don’t send one team to the superbowl to represent America as a whole. We’re four separate countries that share a central government with local governments for each country.

   And let’s not forget….

   It’d be boring as fuck.

7. because it would be literally the england team + gareth bale

8. National identity in the UK is just funny like that. I don’t mean that in a bad way. I like the way it works just now. It’s more fun.

   Large proportions of the Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish populations would see a “British” team as largely an “English” team. And because of the massively disproportionate population it probably would pretty much be an English team. There would be a little, but not a great deal of, emotional investment in a British team from the smaller UK nations.

   Example: the British & Irish Lions rugby team. Mainly an interest of regular rugby fans and they inspire little more than curiosity from casual fans of the sport. Whereas lots of casual rugby fans in Scotland will get invested in, say, the 6 Nations. Usually to their crushing disappointment but that’s a different story.

9. Because each part of the United Kingdom is a country. The United States is many states to make one country. We are the opposite. We are many countries to make one state. Scotland is a country. England is a country. Wales is a country. Northern Ireland- well that’s more complicated! But it is its own territory. At the Olympics we compete together, but at most other competitions we compete separately, indeed in some sports competing against each other forms its own ‘international’ sporting event. One of the premier rugby international competitions (in the northern hemisphere) is The Six Nations – England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, France and Italy. At one point it was the four nations. (Where is Northern Ireland? Well, playing with Ireland – I did say it was complicated!)

10. Because the rest of the UK hates England as much as the rest of the world does.

11. “Soccer” is the correct, historical, term for “Association Football”.

    This is to differ it from “Rugger” or “Rugby Football”

    But soccer has public school overtones, and is thus shunned by the majority of decent, law-abiding citizens who prefer jumpers-for-goalposts last-goal-wins football….

12. We made it, we get to choose the rules

13. Because Scotland would have even less chance of ever taking a team

14. There is no such team.

    The entire basis of international football begins with England vs. Scotland.

15. It’d be like Venom, Sandman and New Goblin teaming up with Spider-Man in Spider-Man 3 instead of fighting him

    (Ik Harry joins Spidey at the end and also doesn’t work with the other 2 but let’s pretend that’s not the case for argument’s sake)

16. There’s the simple and glib “it’s traditional”, which is true to an extent, but the real answer is power.

    Association Football is governed by a body called the International Football Association Board (IFAB). This body does not concern itself with the commercial side of the sport, nor does it organise tournaments leaving this to the much better known FIFA. Instead IFAB is solely concerned with the Laws of the Game.

    IFAB is formed of a committee of eight members, four are rotating from the various associations that make up FIFA, and four are permanent. The permanent members are the Football Association (**England**), the Scottish Football Association (**Scotland**), the Football Association of Wales(**Wales**), and the Irish Football Association (**Northern Ireland**). You will note that these permanent members also form “the Home Nations”.

    So if they were to merge into one group, the UK would reduce its voice at the very highest level of the game, from four votes in eight, to just one.

17. The root of it is historical. The Home Nations (as we call them) started off separate in the early days before there were international fixtures against any other countries. So they have been able to retain that privilege.

    As others are saying, it works MUCH more in favour of the other countries that are not England, giving them many more chances (i.e. club level as well as national) to play teams epresenting other countries or the clubs of those other countries.

18. Because we’re English .. not British ?