• Olympics

FA: No GB team for Rio 2016

ESPN staff
October 9, 2012
Ryan Giggs had expressed his support for a British team for Rio 2016 © PA Photos
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The Football Association has ruled out the possibility of a British men's football team playing at the Rio Olympics in 2016.

Stuart Pearce's Team GB reached the quarter-finals at London 2012 as a British side competed in the competition for the first time since 1972.

But despite support from the likes of Team GB skipper Ryan Giggs, FA general secretary Alex Horne says they are not willing to jeopardise the footballing independence of the four home nations.

"The pinnacle is the World Championships and we've got the European Championships as well," Horne told Sky Sports News.

"We play as England and we are proud to play as England and I know Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are proud to play as their own individual entities and we wouldn't want to do anything to risk that.

"FIFA accepted the position when we were hosting [the Olympics] and I think we take that and we move on."

However, Horne said that a British women's team in four years' time was not out of the question. "For the women, we will keep talking to people about it. We are not ruling it out completely, we went through a lot of politics to get here," he told BBC Radio 5 Live.

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