Team GB wants men’s and women’s football and cricket teams at the Los Angeles Olympics, when the country’s national summer sport will make its debut in the modern Games.
As part of their review into the dip in gold medals in Paris, albeit with another huge medal haul, the British Olympic Association (BOA) and UK Sport are looking at how to maximise podium opportunities and are enthused by the introduction of popular UK sports like cricket and squash, as well as lacrosse and flag football.
There is a determination for the various national football associations to work together on creating a men’s team in the same way as the women, who missed out on qualification in Paris for a tournament that was won by a USA team managed by Emma Hayes.
Team GB have only once had a men’s football team at the Olympics in the last 60 years, when Stuart Pearce led a Great Britain squad that was captained by Ryan Giggs.
“It’s something I would dearly love to happen,” said Andy Anson, the chief executive of the BOA, and a former commercial director at Manchester United. “I would like to work with the FA, with the Scottish FA, with the Welsh and the Northern Irish FA, if we can make it happen.
“I think it would be brilliant for football, for youth football, and football in general. I think seeing the women’s team compete is brilliant, and I would love to see the men’s team compete in the same way.”
There is also an expectation that cricket’s governing bodies will support a Team GB, in the same way as professionalised sports like golf and tennis have established themselves in the Olympics. The Olympic cricket tournament in LA is expected to follow a Twenty20 format.
“We’ve got good experience in golf, in rugby, in women’s football, of how the Four Nations can come together and nominate one country to be the main governing body, and work with the other countries,” said Anson. “I think cricket will be the same. The ECB will be at the centre of that. They’ll have to work with Cricket Scotland to make sure that happens properly. And we will help them sign agreements to come together and create a single national governing body, as we have done in those other sports. We are working very closely with the ECB at the moment to make them become the fully fledged National Olympic Committee member.”
Anson had particular praise for how rowing and athletics had returned vastly improved performances in Paris and believes that boxing’s dip was largely cyclical because of a young team and how the Tokyo medallists all turned professional.
With no British representative in breaking – which has been removed from the LA Games – he also emphasised the existing world-class potential in the other new sports for 2028.
“I think our women’s team is in the top three in the world in lacrosse,” said Anson. “In flag football, we’re in the top few in the world in the women’s section. In squash, we’ve got men and women in the top 10 in the world.”
