As football shouldn’t really be an Olympic sport (it’s got the World Cup, why the hell does it need the Olympic games? No major nation selects their strongest team for it – but I’ve already covered all that in The Best and Worst Olympic Sports post ) they’ve started the men’s and women’s ‘soccer’ tournaments before they’ve even had the opening ceremony. The women kicked off yesterday with a win over New Zealand and the men begin their campaign this evening against Senegal. They’ve also put the matches on as far away from London as possible, in what the motorway signs would call ‘The North’. (It’s also being played in Cardiff. Or as the motorway signs would say, ‘Caerdydd’.) It’s like the ‘friend’ you have to invite to your party but don’t want your other friends to have to put up with. So you invite them to come earlier than anyone else in the hope that they’ll tire out and leave before they get in the way of any of your other friends. (Does anyone actually do that? Probably not because they could stay until the end and then you’ve just ended up spending even more time with them.)

However, this year for British football fans, it’s at least a little more interesting with a Great British football team being created especially for the London games. Obviously, the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish FAs told their players not to participate if called upon because they hate England… But thankfully some of Wales’  best players (except for killjoy Gareth Bale) became inebriated with the ‘Olympic spirit’ and accepted the call up. (The Scottish and Northern Irish FAs would seem to have rose tinted views on their players if they were actually worried that they would get called up.)

Finally, Ryan Giggs gets to play in an international tournament. Now, whatever you think of his gentlemanly conduct in terms of his commitment to holy matrimony he is one of the greatest players of all time, alongside Georges Best and Weah, never to have played in an international football tournament. He is the most decorated footballer in English football, and based purely on football, he deserves to play in an international football tournament. And never mind those sour faced home nation FA misery guts, this is a great example of a unified Great Britain. (Or at least a unified England and Wales.)

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