Friday, July 13, 2012

Is Great Britain's football squad a good idea?

Will Great Britain's football team overshadow
Britain's athletic hero's?
 It has been 40 years since Britain had a Team GB football team training, but it's a controversial issue. For many years people have objected to Britain having an Olympic Football team, largely because football fans already concentrate on doing well in major tournaments more or less every two years.

 People feel that if the football team were to succeed in the Olympics, their success would overshadow any other athletes in Britain.

 Football is indisputably THE biggest sport in Britain, with roughly 13 million people attendance wise at a Premier League football match. And it seems that some people have had enough of football by the end of the season. The problem is with Team GB's football squad, is that more people will focus on them, and their chances of success are very limited.

 Now, I'm not trying to be pessimistic, but it won't be easy to win gold. First of all, Brazil are undoubtedly the favourites to win. Bringing the quality youths such as Neymar (tipped to be the next best player in the world), Ganso, Oscar, Lucas, and senior players such as Hulk, Thiago Silva, Pato and Marcelo, you can tell why they're favourties. When you look at their side and compare it to Team GB's, you just think... "Wow". It  more or less proves why Brazil are also favourites to retain a record 6th world cup in 2014 on their home soil, where a lot of these players will be seniors in their early 20's. 

 Team GB has already had a lot more media attention; as expected from big firms such as Sky Sports and the BBC. This is just due to the fact that football is dominant over other sports, and more people are likely to tune in to see football news than anything else. And with controversy of Stuart Pearce's decision to leave out David Beckham, it really hit the media hard.

 British athletes really do have the Olympics to hit centre stage, and become as big as they aspire. No-one would have heard of athletes such as Rebecca Adlington had it not been for Beijing in 2008, yet any attempts to get near a gold will most likely be overshadowed by Team GB.


It feels that athletes will only get any attention if they win a gold, unless if they're well known - such as heptathlon participant Jessica Ennis. 

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