Changes for British football in 2012 Olympics

Sepp Blatter, president of football's world-governing body FIFA, has confirmed that Great Britain must be represented by a sole football team at the 2012 London Olympic Games, reported Jonathan Wilson of the Financial Times. Britain has traditionally not entered a team for fear that the four home associations (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) would lose their status as individual entities, but Blatter promised a written assurance that this would not be the case.

"If they field a Great Britain team, the rights, privileges and prerogatives they acquired at the international conference of 1947 will not be lost," he said. "There will still be four individual nations in FIFA."

The Great Britain team would be limited to players aged under 23 but three over-age players would be allowed.