Great Britain’s Path To Olympics May Be For England To Rout Scotland

After a win over the Netherlands, England may need to defeat neighbors Scotland by a big scoreline on Tuesday for both team’s players to have a chance of playing at the Olympics.

This curious scenario is a result of the historical discrepancies created by a Great Britain team – comprised of the four independent soccer teams of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland – competing at the Olympic Games as a ‘United Kingdom’.

In 2016, England’s results qualified them for Olympics but Great Britain team competed in the Rio de Janeiro Games. Since then, an agreeement has been reached by the four independent Football Associations that the results of the England women’s national team will determine whether Great Britain will qualify for the Olympic Women’s Football Tournament.

No such agreement has ever been made for the men’s football tournament where Great Britain previously sent teams of amateur players, outside the four professional leagues, to the Games until 1972 before declining to enter a team altogether. Since the professionalization of the Olympic men’s Football Tournament in 1992 (albeit predominantly as an under 23 tournament), the only Great Britain men’s team to compete was on home soil at the London 2012 Games, where they qualified by virtue of being the host nation.

Despite England men’s team qualifying for an Olympic place in 2024 by winning this summer’s UEFA u23 European Championships, no Great Britain team has been entered for the Paris Olympics.

Previously, European representation at the Olympic Women’s Football tournament has been awarded to the best three best performers from the continent at the preceeding FIFA Women’s World Cup. However, in order to give extra significance to their new Women’s Nations League tournament, the European governing body UEFA, will from now on decide Olympic qualification based on ranking in their own competiton.

This created the possibility that England could be drawn against another of their British neighbors in a qualifying group they had to win in order for players from both of their respective nations to have a chance of going to the Olympic Games.

Drawn with Scotland, this has now come to pass. Last night’s win leaves England level on points with the Netherlands going into their final match away to Scotland in Glasgow but second in the standings due to an inferior goal difference.

Should the Netherlands defeat their neighbors Belgium in Tilburg, the only way England can finish above the Dutch would be for them to overcome their current three goal advantage in goal difference, the tie-breaker when teams are level on points.

This would require an England victory by at least four clear goals at Hampden Park and one more for each extra goal the Dutch might score should they defeat Belgium. Beyond national pride against their perennial rivals, Scotland themselves has nothing to play for in the game. Whatever happens against England, their relegation from the top tier of the Nations League has already been assured.

This creates a potentially problematic situation late in the game whereby England could be secure in a winning position and requiring extra goals facing opponents who individually have more to gain from conceding than keeping the score down.

Speaking after last night’s game, England head coach Sarina Wiegman has keen to downplay any advantage her team might have playing Scotland claiming “there’s an enormous rivalry and Scotland’s not going to give anything away.”

Dutch coach Andries Jonker admitted “there is a relationship between the British countries but they want nothing more than to beat each other. For whatever Scottish sportsperson it’s an honor to beat the English. In rugby, Scotland and England are always fighting. In the women’s game, it’s going to be the same, in spite of the fact that a player like Erin Cuthbert (of Scotland) would participate in a Great Britain team.”

However, should Great Britain qualify as a result of a large England victory over Scotland, questions will be raised about the relationship between the players of the two countries – half of the Scottish squad play in the English Women’s Super League – and the wisdom of UEFA not keeping them apart in the qualifying draw.