Foreign 'Team GB' wrestlers - disgraceful

[cdbearsfan]

Britain has spent an absolute fortune, not just on hosting the games but on lottery (etc) funding to win loads of medals. People will moan like buggery if they don't win at least 20 golds and finish above Australia and Germany in the medals table. I'd rather they did that by stretching (but not breaking) the rules on naturallisation than by sending a load of druggy cheats like the Americans are.

[Archbishop Herbert Cockthrottle]

Utter disgrace. Almost as bad as Zola Budd.

In fairness, she would be a shit wrestler.

I'm not sure I like the sound of shit wrestling, can't see Sky wanting to show it.

They show enough shit football.

[fbriai]

It's interesting that this has surfaced in the Telegraph now. Martin Samuel has written about it a few times - and it's not just happening in wrestling if I remember correctly.

There was an article on Monday in the Daily Mail - yes, I know, it's a rag. No, it's worse than a rag - but I think Martin Samuel's good, don't always agree with him, but in general he's pretty perceptive. His articles are only thing I read in the online version and, in my defence, I only discovered him in a previous existence when he wrote for the Times. Anyway, the article is here:

tinyurl.com/d7mbzmj

The point is that what they are doing is cynically trying to get more medals by importing better wrestlers just a few months before the Games begin. What's the point of international competition if you do that? As the article says, Strauss was born in South Africa, but moved with his family to England at an early age and grew up there. Why shouldn't he be able to play for England? Samuel speaks in support of one of the female wrestlers who will probably miss out and she has an Italian surname, Spiteri, so it's not like he's just against foreigners or people with foreign sounding names. The argument is more nuanced than that.

[Handsworth Wood Villa]

With all due respect to everyone's right to take the piss out of petty racists, what's the point of putting out a national team, if it's allowed to co-opt participants that aren't that nationality?

Doesn't that make the whole idea of pitting nation against nation even more pointless than it already is?

If people are qualified to represent a country and are the best available, I don't see their nationality of birth as having any relevance.

So you wouldn't mind having the likes of Arteta and Almunia play for England?

I don't mind as long as they were born here or grew up here or have a parental link to this country.

If they only came here as adults to play their sport then no thank-you.

I don't want other countries' rejects to compete for us.

These guys would never compete for GB if they were good enough to compete for their own country.

Sums up everything that is wrong about international sport...

[Handsworth Wood Villa]

Absolute disgrace this is.

I'd much rather we put out a team of wrestlers who are actually British and get smashed by the other nations.

Malcolm Morley and British Wrestling should hang their heads in shame.

Big fan of Greco-Roman wrestling then TRS?

Or are you just using something you really don't give a flying fuck about to have another little xenophobic rant?

Wanting the British team to be British is xenophonic?

In that case, international sport is xenophobic as it discriminates against people with the wrong passport and should be banned immediately 

[UK Redsox]

With all due respect to everyone's right to take the piss out of petty racists, what's the point of putting out a national team, if it's allowed to co-opt participants that aren't that nationality?

Doesn't that make the whole idea of pitting nation against nation even more pointless than it already is?

If people are qualified to represent a country and are the best available, I don't see their nationality of birth as having any relevance.

So you wouldn't mind having the likes of Arteta and Almunia play for England?

If they're eligible per FIFA rules and good enough, why shouldn't they play ?

Arteta probably is and Almunia probably isn't.

[UK Redsox]

Absolute disgrace this is.

I'd much rather we put out a team of wrestlers who are actually British and get smashed by the other nations.

Malcolm Morley and British Wrestling should hang their heads in shame.

Big fan of Greco-Roman wrestling then TRS?

Or are you just using something you really don't give a flying fuck about to have another little xenophobic rant?

Wanting the British team to be British is xenophonic?

Yes, in the way that you're stating it is.

You're advocating the exclusion of eligible participants based on their country of origin.

[Handsworth Wood Villa]

Absolute disgrace this is.

I'd much rather we put out a team of wrestlers who are actually British and get smashed by the other nations.

Malcolm Morley and British Wrestling should hang their heads in shame.

Big fan of Greco-Roman wrestling then TRS?

Or are you just using something you really don't give a flying fuck about to have another little xenophobic rant?

Wanting the British team to be British is xenophonic?

Yes, in the way that you're stating it is.

You're advocating the exclusion of eligible participants based on their country of origin.

That's the whole point of international sport...

[Handsworth Wood Villa]

With all due respect to everyone's right to take the piss out of petty racists, what's the point of putting out a national team, if it's allowed to co-opt participants that aren't that nationality?

Doesn't that make the whole idea of pitting nation against nation even more pointless than it already is?

If people are qualified to represent a country and are the best available, I don't see their nationality of birth as having any relevance.

So you wouldn't mind having the likes of Arteta and Almunia play for England?

If they're eligible per FIFA rules and good enough, why shouldn't they play ?

Arteta probably is and Almunia probably isn't.

Because it's called the England national football team.

It's full of English players.

Arteta and Almunia are not English.

They are Spanish.

If they had the choice of playing for Spain or England, they would choose to play for Spain every single day of the week.

They weren't born in England.

They didn't grow up in England.

They didn't go to school in England.

They don't have any English parents or family.

They aren't English.

They only came here to play football.

They are Spaniards living in England.

If move to Spain, it doesn't make me Spanish.

I'd just be an Englishman who happens to live in Spain.

[Dave Cooper please]

409 post, of which approximately 400 must be about how everybody connected with English (or in this case British) sport must be English.
But you're not xenophobic. oh no.
I'm only surprised you have managed to keep the word 'white' out of your posts so far to be honest.

[Handsworth Wood Villa]

409 post, of which approximately 400 must be about how everybody connected with English (or in this case British) sport must be English.
But you're not xenophobic. oh no.
I'm only surprised you have managed to keep the word 'white' out of your posts so far to be honest.

Being white has nothing to do with it.

Darren Bent is English.

Mikel Arteta is not.

[olaftab]

Olympic games are not about nationality. These games are about best athletes in their field getting together to compete against each other. That is why games are awarded to a city and not a country. So we should forget medal  hopes for the nation but celebrate every gold that is won by every athlete competing in the games regardless of where they come from.