The British Olympic Football Team

TO GB OR NOT TO GB: The British Olympic Football Team

By Steve Menary

The last time a British Football team became Olympic champions was in 1912 in Stock- holm. The cover of a magazine produced after the tournament shows a British forward on the attack against Denmark in the final. The Challenge Cup, donated by the English association, thus remained in its home country. It is correct, as Steve Menary writes, that the first great Olympic Football tournament took place in London in 1908, but the Olympic champions before that were also regarded as official. When they step out at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium When the first proper Olympic Football tournament on July 25th, Great Britain’s women footballers will be was staged in 1908 only the Football Association (FA) of the first Olympians from the host nation to participate England were members of the nascent FIFA body that in the 2012 Olympic Games. It will be the first time that had been asked by the International Olympic Commit- they have taken part in the Games. The following day tee (IOC) to organise the Football tournament in London. the men will follow them into action at Old Trafford. It The other three Home did not follow England in joining is 41 years since a British men’s team last took part in an FIFA in 1905, but the world body invited all four associa- Olympic match. Yet behind these simple statements lie tions to compete in London in 1908. a complex and intriguing story of national identity. Given the location of the tournament, failure to extend The four Home Nations compete as Great Britain in the such an invite would surely have been politically inad- Olympic world, whereas England, Scotland, Wales and visable, yet the other Home Nations’ lack of confidence Northern Ireland participate as nations in their own right in their own sense of nationhood in sporting terms and in the Football World Cup and European Championships. a wider context saw only England take part in 1908. The footballers of the four Home Nations of the United At a FIFA congress that year, the FA did propose Scotland Kingdom have only ever united to play as one team at and Ireland as members of the new world body but this the Olympics. The first officially recognised Olympic motion this was rejected on the grounds that FIFA would Football tournament took place in 1908 but it was not then also have to grant entry to each of the 26 Austrian until 1936 that an authentic "United" team was assem- and 12 German confederate states. bled to include players from England, Scotland, Wales There are also more prosaic reasons why only England and Northern Ireland. competed in 1908. Firstly, teams entering had to pay

JOH 2 | 2012 27 Because of a diver- gence of views about amateur status and the rules system, the four British associations left FIFA in the 1920s. It was not until 1936 that a British team took part in the Olympic tournament, but it had difficulty in beating China 2:0 in the preliminary round. The Official Report of the British Olympic Association states: "The display of the British team was far from impressive."

their own expenses1 and for the Scots, there was another feeling increasingly disenfranchised that professio- concern. A report in The Sportsman newspaper publis- nals had "too much sway in the FA Council"4, a separa- hed shortly after the 1908 Olympics ended posited the te England team for amateurs was created in 1906 and ludicrous idea that had the Scottish Football Association this team led by Woodward contested and won the 1908 (SFA) gone ahead and entered a team, Scotland’s starting Olympic Football title. Individual Home Nation teams did XI would need to be selected by only Home Nations FA participate in the Hockey tournament in 1908. then in FIFA - England.2 The Games of the V Olympiad were held in the Swedish Another factor to influence participation in 1908 was that capital of Stockholm in 1912. Two years earlier, the SFA the Olympics were amateur and the notion of Britishness and the Football Association of Wales (FAW), had joined in a sporting sense was generated by upper-class English FIFA and were followed in 1911 by the Irish Football gentlemen amateurs, who had first organised and Association (IFA). FIFA again officially made an excep- codified association Football. As Luke Harris argues: tion for the Home Nations, who would be allowed to "'Britishness' is the way in which British competitors participate individually, although this was quietly act on the field of play, many of these relating to the discouraged and Britain was again represented by amateur ethos of playing the game in a sporting and England’s amateur team.5 gentlemanly manor, and compete not to win, but for The outbreak of the World War I forced the cancellation the games’ enjoyment."3 of the Games planned for Berlin and the next Olympics Another dynamic in the participation solely of would not be held until 1920. By this time all four Home Englishmen in 1908 was that finding amateur players Nations’ associations had split from FIFA over defining was easier in England, which offered a proliferation amateurism and whether payments for broken time, i.e. of amateur leagues in the North and Southern East. period taken off work unpaid to play Football, could be Amateurs also still played in the English First Division allowed. Prior to this separation, the FA made a promi- at professional clubs and, although their number se to FIFA to send a team to Antwerp in 1920 to defend the was dwindling, some continued to feature for the full title that had been won in 1912 and this was fulfilled, al- England side, such as Vivian Woodward of Tottenham beit with less success as the England amateur XI lost 3-1 Hotspur. In Scotland, Wales and Ireland however, the to Norway in the first round. In these first three Olympic amateur game was centred on one or two teams playing Football tournaments, players with sufficient links out- in leagues against professionals clubs, notably Queen’s side of England to claim a foreign allegiance by today’s Park in Glasgow, Cliftonville in Belfast, Bohemians in standards did take part, such as Ronald Brebner in 1908 Dublin and Cardiff Corinthians. and Thomas Burn in 1912, who both played for London At the behest of the public schoolboy amateurs then Caledonians.6 London Caledonians was an amateur club

28 with playing criteria stating: "All members of the club ver exceeded.11 5% and was as low as 9.9 % in the late must be Scotsmen either by birth or parentage (mo- 1960s and early 1970s. During this same period under ther or father)." 7 Another London Caledonians play- analysis, the population in Northern Ireland ranged er with a Scottish mother, Eric Gates, played in 19208, between 2.8% and 3.1 % of the overall UK population when the British team had a Welsh manager in George yet 19 starting places in the Olympic XI were secured by Latham, but the notion of England being representative Northern Irish players, which is 7.2 %. of British-ness prevailed in all three tournaments. The only Home Nation not over-represented in the With the IFA now representing Northern Ireland, the British team using population as a reference point is four Home Nations associations remained exiled from Wales. Only three Welshmen played in competitive mat- FIFA during the 1920s in the on-going schism over ama- ches and the six starting places taken represent just teurism and missed the 1924 and 1928 Olympic tour- 1.6 % of those available, whereas the proportion of the naments, whilst the 1932 Games in Los Angeles did not UK population classified as Welsh by the ONS ranged from feature a Football tournament. In 1936, Football retur- 4.9% to 5.1 %. This can be partly ascribed to a lack of in- ned and for the first time a squad featuring players from put from the FAW, whose archive in Aberystwyth shows all four Home Nations travelled to Berlin, where a team barely any mention of the Olympics. Although Scots and featuring four Scotsmen, one Northern Irishman and six Northern Irish players joined Englishmen at the 1960 Englishmen beat China 2-0 on August 6, 1936.9 They were Olympics, no Welshmen took part in the team’s eighth subsequently eliminated by Poland in the second round. and last appearance in the tournament finals. After 1936, Britain entered the Olympic Football tourna- Between 1908 and 1960, a total of 155 places were ment on seven further occasions and, although the FA available in Olympic Football squads and data for this remained at the core of the administration, six of these period again shows that English players dominate, sides featured players from the other Home Nations. taking 122 of these places – or 78.7 % (see Fig 3). The exception was Melbourne in 1956.The Games that year were held in late November and early December. Fig. 1 This was in the middle of the domestic season in the Year Eng Scot Ire/NI Wales Northern Hemisphere and was a contributory factor to 1908 33 0 0 0 the non-participation of the IFA, SFA and FAW. All three 1912 33 0 0 0 were also concerned about cost.10 1920 11 0 0 0 Overall, Britain entered 11 international teams in the 1936 14 6 2 0 1948 27 8 3 5 Olympic Football tournament over a period of 64 years 1952 10 1 0 0 and a total of 150 different players from all four Home 1956 44 0 0 0 Nations featured. Appearance data over this period 1960 56 13 7 1 shows a clear bias towards English players, who occupi- 1964 32 5 7 0 ed 83.6% of all available starting places (see Fig 1). 1968 40 4 0 0 According to Office of National Statistics (ONS) data, the 1972 21 1 0 0 percentage of people classified as English never rose Total 321 38 19 6 above 82.2% during this period so the British Olympic % of total 83.6 9.9 4.9 1.6 Football team was reasonably representative of the population of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and

Northern Ireland (Ireland in the first three Olympics). Year Eng Scot Ire/NI Wales Fig. 2 However, strip out data for the four Olympics, 1908, 1912, 1936 14 6 2 0 1920 and 1956, where Northern Irish, Scottish or Welsh 1948 27 9 3 5 players were not considered and a different picture 1952 10 1 0 0 emerges. This shows that the three smaller Home Nations 1960 56 13 7 1 had a more prominent role than their populations war- 1964 32 5 7 0 ranted compared to England, where the main political 1968 40 4 0 0 centres of all four constituents of the Home Nations then 1972 21 1 0 0 resided. The meaning of this is unclear (see Fig 2). Total 200 39 19 6 In the seven Olympic Football tournaments where % of total 75.7 14.8 7.2 2.3 Scotsmen were available for selection for GB between 1936 and 1972, a total of 263 starting places were available in finals matches and qualifying games, and However, a very different picture emerges when 38 were taken by Scotsmen. In percentage terms, this stripping out the four tournaments when the selection is 14.4% but ONS data show the proportion of people of the squad was restricted to solely English players. Of classified as Scottish within the UK in this period ne- 83 squad places between 1936 and 1960 – but excluding

JOH 2 | 2012 TO GB OR NOT TO GB: The British Olympic Football Team 29 Fig. 3 The year before Busby managed the Great Britain team, Year Eng Scot Ire/NI Wales the Home Nations fielded a combined team of profes- 1908 18 0 0 0 sionals to take on a Rest of the World XI at Hampden 1912 19 0 0 0 Park, Glasgow, in a game to raise money for a then cash- 1920 19 0 0 0 strapped FIFA. With the smaller members of the Home 1936 13 5 2 2 Nations seemingly more confident about their own 1948 10 7 2 3 individual sporting identity, a new sense of post-war 1952 15 3 1 1 1956 16 0 0 0 British solidarity was evident at the 1948 Olympics that 1960 12 4 3 0 contrasted sharply with the GB team’s previous appea- Total 122 19 8 6 rance in Berlin. In 1936, the four Home Nations had united for the first Total (%) 78.7 12.2 5.2 3.9 time after the Germans organisers wrote to the FA asking for a team to come to Berlin; not just a team of English- Fig. 4 men, a team from all the Home Nations.12 The FA agreed Year Eng Scot Ire/NI Wales to foot the whole bill and gave the Northern Irish, Scots 11936 13 5 2 2 and Welsh two choices: either join the English party of 1948 10 7 2 3 footballers in Berlin or stay at home.13 With no invest- 1952 15 3 1 1 ment needed, the other three Home Nations agreed to 1960 12 4 3 0 supply players chosen by their own selectors, although Total 50 19 8 6 a meeting of the full SFA board was needed to rule over Total (%) 60.2 22.9 9.7 7.2 whether Scotsmen could be part of a British squad. By 1948, a Home Nations Olympic Football committee had been formed and a more egalitarian approach took hold 1956 - 50 went to Englishmen but 19 went to Scots’ with committeemen ruling that each of the four associa- players, which is 22.9%. At no time from 1936 to 1960 did tions make a contribution based on the number of play- Scotland’s population represent more than 11.5% of the ers in the final squad. The motion was passed by three UK, so average Scottish representation in the Olympic votes to one with Scotland raising the sole objection.14 Football squads is double that of country’s population The subsequent squad selected left the FA with a bill of (see Fig 4). Between 1936 and 1960, ONS statistics show £2,281, Scotland paying out £1,597, Wales with £684 to pay that Northern Ireland’s population ranged between for its three players and Northern Ireland just £456.15 2.8% and 3.1% of the UK total, but 9.7% of the GB squad This moment of post-war solidarity proved brief. Two in this period were Northern Irish. years before the next Olympics, the Home Nations A committee of selectors chose most squads and star- individually entered the World Cup with the British ting line-ups during most of the lifetime of the GB team, Championship used as qualifiers for the 1950 finals but managers gradually had more influence after World in Brazil. At the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, the inte- War Two and this latterly influenced representation. rest of the three smaller Home Nations subsequent- The team’s final manager was FA staff coach Charles ly waned and the FA took control of the British team, Hughes, an Englishman who took charge during the again funding the whole venture, installing an English 1964 qualifiers and stayed until the final game in 1971. manager in Walter Winterbottom and ten English- He admitted: "Wales and Northern Ireland were never men took their place in the side for the only match, a going to turn up many of the players of the right quality 5-3 defeat at the hands of Luxembourg in a prelimi- and that’s the same today." 11 nary round game actually played before the Opening Only two non-Englishmen managed England and Ceremony of the Games. Apart from 1960, this lack of so- selectors chose both the English-only party taken by lidarity among the administrators would feature during the Welshman Latham to Antwerp in 1920, and the the remainder of the GB team’s life-span. squad for the Scot Matt Busby at London in 1948, which A qualifying round was introduced for the 1956 Games featured seven Scots in the 22-man squad and saw and only Englishmen took part in the qualification nine starting places in four matches played occupied by round. Bulgaria won the first leg in Sofia 2-0 and despite Scotsmen. a 3-3 draw at Wembley in May 1956, the British (English) This was a reflection of the post-war era, when a more were out. Within a few weeks the FA had accepted an united approach to British identity was evident else- invitation to participate after all, but as we have seen the where. Prior to the World War II, Scotland and Wales other three nations were less enthusiastic. began to assert themselves in the international Football In the professional game, Scotland, Wales and Northern arena by finally playing international matches against Ireland continued to affirm their independence on the teams outside of the Home Nations. field and qualified (along with England) for the 1958

30 World Cup finals in Sweden. This remains the only time to date that all four home nations have been represented at the final tournament. For the 1960 Olympics, the Home Nations made an enquiry to the IOC about entering four teams that was quickly rejected.16 A side featuring Englishmen, Scotsman and Northern Irishmen qualified for the 1960 finals in Rome, but the venture was clearly in control of the English as evidenced by the party at the annual British Olympic Association (BOA) dinner in November 1959: Ten people represented the British footballing efforts and all ten were English.17 After the British Olympic Football team’s final Games appearance in 1960, a handful of players from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland were still involved despite little evidence of enthusiasm from their own associations, who had little interest in neutering their own independence on the world stage. However, there was at this time no direct opposition to players taking 1947 Great Britain vs. part from either administrators or fans. Asked if he Netherlands: For the recalled any objections to a Scot playing in a British first time, a GB team team, Hunter Devine, a Scottish amateur forward from featuring players from Queen’s Park and striker in the 1960 GB side, replied: all for Home Nations "No, none at all."18 takes to the field for The revival of the GB team brought about by London a first round match in winning the right to host the 2012 Olympics has produced the 1948 London swathes of trenchantly opposed views from administra- Olympics. The team tors and emotional opposition from supporters groups. included seven During the life-span of the original GB side, administ- Englishmen, two rators were more often disinterested than antagonistic, Scotsmen, one Nort- while supporters had no organised "voice"and a less hern Irishman and, hysterical approach to individual nationhood within for the first time, a the four constituents of the United Kingdom and Great Welshman, Gwynn Britain and Northern Ireland in the media prevailed but Manning. self-interest was still very much evident. At the 1936 Games, the Queen’s Park FC contingent missed a league fixture while in Berlin and the SFA only consented provided all four of the club’s players were Left: Gwynn selected for the first round match with China.19 After Manning (l) and Frank Britain were eliminated by Poland in the quarter-finals, Donovan (r), the only the dull headline in The Times read "Attack Weak Until two Welshmen to play Late in Second Half and Defence Uncertain" 20 yet team in the finals of an captain Bernard Joy claimed melding a team from four Olympic Football tour- countries "in so short a time was a failure".21 nament – the 1948 During the team’s final appearance at an Olympic Games in London. Games at Rome in 1960, the celebrated commenta- tor Kenneth Wolstenholme apologized during a live TV So neither of these none of these incidents contribut- coverage after accidentally referring to a Great Britain ed to the eventual downfall of the Great Britain team. team comprising six Englishmen, four Scotsmen and a Instead this was caused partly by persistent self-interest Northern Irishman as "England". and a hermetic approach from associations other than This slip passed unnoticed back then. Had it happe- England. The key development was the abolition of the ned today it would have been the stuff of sensational maximum wage in 1961. headlines in today’s more voracious media, which has The maximum wage in England had justified the made a major "issue" of the revived team. In the early amateur credo, making turning professional less appe- sixties, selection issues had none of the media impact. tizing for aspiring middle class players seeking a better

JOH 2 | 2012 TO GB OR NOT TO GB: The British Olympic Football Team 31 The programme for the qualifying game against the Federal Republic of Germany on 8 November 1967 in London. This was a two legged affair. Great Britain lost 1-0 on the night but won the tie 2-1 on aggregate. They were eliminated in the next round by Spain.

standard of living, particularly during the code’s heyday subsequently feature in 1968 and players from both during the fifties, the immediate aftermath of the World Scotland and the other two smaller Home Nations War II. However, the secret payment of money to play- sporadically played minor roles but without support or ers in the English amateur game – known commonly as encouragement from their associations. The team refor- "shamateurism" – was rampant by the time that the med just once to attempt qualification for the Games in qualifiers for the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo began. During Munich. This was a final politically motivated attempt the qualifiers, the Football Association raised concerns to revive the team before the notion of a united British about the amateur status of at least one member of Football identity disappeared altogether. their Greek opponents. In 1969, the newly formed Sports Council – a qua- With the maximum wage gone, there was little si autonomous -non-governmental organisation or widespread support outside of England, or even among quango – convened a meeting to reconstitute the old most forward-looking English administrators, for the Home Nations Olympic Football committee with the amateur code, which – along with the GB team - was democratic ideal of one member holding one vote. clearly doomed by the late 1960s. For the 1968 Olympics However, when the committee met in 1971 in the run-up qualifiers neither the IFA nor FAW were willing to con- to the Munich qualifiers with Bulgaria, the Scots failed tribute financially at all. The SFA still bore some of the to even attend.25 cost but a four-man panel of selectors comprised three In the team’s final two games, one Scotsman played Englishmen and one Scotsmen.22 with ten Englishmen in the first leg and of 16 players to The IFA ultimately did not even nominate any players travel to Sofia for the team’s last match, a 5-0 defeat to in 196823 and again club interests prevailed in Scotland Bulgaria, all but the Welsh reserve goalkeeper, Grenville after a dispute over player availability between Hughes Millington, were English. and Queen’s Park, which insisted their players feature in The British Olympic Football team had become an irrel- a league match instead of attending an Olympic training evance in an increasingly outmoded competition now session. Billy Neil, a Queen’s Park and Olympic player dominated by Eastern Bloc teams, whose governments from 1968, explains: recognised neither amateurism nor professionalism but "The club demanded that I played for them and I was only communism. told if I didn’t play, then I would be banned sine die In communist Bulgaria, there were no professionals; [for life]. I went back to the GB committee and said I everyone was supposedly "amateur" even if their state had to play for the club. It all went on for a while and jobs permitted them to do little but play sport. Nine of eventually I said I wouldn’t play. That was the end of the Bulgarian squad that travelled to London in 1971 for it [the Olympic team] for me." 24 the first leg of their Olympic qualifier with Britain had been part of their nation’s full international squad at Club priorities and internecine rivalry again took pre- the previous year’s World Cup in Mexico.26 Hughes, cedence over the GB cause and any sense of British- however was restricted to selecting most of his squad ness and in February 1968, the SFA withdrew their from England’s Isthmian and Northern Leagues. sole selector from the Home Nations Olympic Commit- In England, the amateur distinction was abandoned in tee. Two Scotsmen from outside Queen’s Park FC did 1974. All footballers were no longer amateur or profes-

32 sional but were declared simply "players", leaving the 6 Ian Buchanan, British Olympians – A Hundred Years of Gold Medal- English, who had traditionally driven the British team lists, Guinness, 1991, p. 14. 7 Fabian & Green, p. 274. since its earliest days, unable to enter a competition 8 Ibid, p. 274. that was still nominally amateur. 9 Menary, p. 300. 10 Ibid, p. 179. In the professional game, Wales reached the 1976 11 Interview with author, 12 November 2007. European Championships quarter finals, the best 12 Menary, p. 110. performance by any of the home nations. Scotland 13 Ibid, p. 110. 14 Ibid, p. 110. qualified for the final stages of every World Cup from 15 Ibid, p. 152. 1974 to 1990. Northern Ireland joined them in both 1982 16 Ibid, p. 205. and 1986. The notion of a united Great Britain became 17 Ibid, p. 208. 18 Interview with author, 15 December 2011. irrelevant. With their footballing independence secure 19 Fabian & Green, Vol. Four, p. 460. on the pitch, supporters found their voices in the terraces 20 The Times, August 10 1936. 21 Fabian & Green, Vol. Four, p. 460. via organised fan groups. 22 Ibid, p. 254. However, when London won the right to host the 2012 23 Ibid, p. 255. Olympics, the idea of a joint team went from being 24 Interview with author, 2 November 2007. 25 Menary, p. 271. a remnant of Football history to a seismic issue that 26 Ibid, p. 273. seemingly threatened the very fabric of the British game. 27 The Herald, 25 July 2008. In 2008, Gordon Smith, then Chief Executive of the SFA said: "We are opposed to the concept of a British Football team … we feel that such a move would threaten the independent status of the Home Nations".27 First British Olympic This view was shared by the FAW and, to a lesser Champion was honored degree, by the IFA, and undermined any idea that a team involving all four Home Nations could be revived. A commemorative headstone was unveiled in Aside from the media hysteria inevitably accompanying homage to the first British Olympic champion selection, finding criteria for providing a representative Launceston Elliot in the presence of his grand- team would be difficult. IOC rules require an 18-man daughter Ann Elliot Smith, the British Minister squad with 15 players or fewer aged under-23 and the for Sport and the Olympics Hugh Robertson and remaining places taken by players above this age limit. the Chairman of the British Olympic Association Using current population numbers, a gradual shift in (BOA) Lord Moynihan at the Fawkner Cemetery in demographics towards England means that 83.8% of Melbourne on March 18, 2012. the squad would need to be English, which translates Elliot was an all-round sporting talent. As a into 15 players for England with Wales and Northern weightlifter, he won the one handed lift at the Ireland not even eligible to a player each. Games of the Ist Olympiad 1896 in Athens, and he Setting a squad quota would be difficult and history finished second in the two-handed by the judges shows that the only way the FAW, IFA and SFA could who deemed that the Danish Viggo Jensen had a ensure decent representation is through whole- better style. Furthermore he competed in Athle- hearted involvement and, more importantly, financial tics (100 m), Rope Climbing (5th) and Wrestling (4th). contributions to a team their administrators insist will After that, Elliot had tapped into showmanship. undermine their own independence. The star of a circus-style strongman act, he led This is unlikely to happen so exactly a century after a a troupe, and performed in leopard skins and team from the British Isles last won gold at an Olympic togas in Europe and South Africa. After World War I, Football tournament, the British Olympic Football team Elliot retreated to a farm in England before he mo- appears to be have come full circle. It is therefore not ved with his family to Australia in 1923, where he without irony that the Football tournament is set to settled in Whittlesea until he passed away on 18 open with matches staged in Wales and Scotland. August 1930 from cancer. More than 80 years after he was buried in an un- 1 Steve Menary, GB United? British Olympic Football and the end of marked grave with no more than number, 960, in the amateur dream, Pitch Publications, p. 44. 2 The Sportsman, 10 November 1908. a corner of the Fawkner Cemetery, his grave was 3 Luke Harris, Going in British Fashion’. British Perceptions of discovered in 2004. But it wasn’t until the British Britishness and the 1908 London Olympic Games: Myth and Olympic champion and London Games Chairman Reality, paper at 2010 annual conference of British Society of Sports Historians, p. 5. Sebastian Coe visited the grave in 2011 that pro- 4 Fabian & Jeffrey Green (ed), Association Football Volume One, gress was made towards getting a headstone. Caxton 1960, p. 76. 5 Menery, p. 61.

JOH 2 | 2012 TO GB OR NOT TO GB: The British Olympic Football Team 33