I should know better at my age but here's a question - Team GB is short for Great Britain and Northern Ireland - I always understood that UK stands for the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland - so why is our Olymic team not referred to as Team UK?
Team GB
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Probably because it's the combined GB and NI team, so Team GB is easier to print and say than "Team GB and NI". Maybe, if other entities of the UK enter separately, it's better to use GB than UK?
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There is an article on bbc news about this. To do with Jersey and other smaller islands not being in UK but are in GB. Can't find the link at the moment
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It is to do with IOC affiliated, individual sports associations, being different from UN membership.
An example would be England and Wales separate with FIFA, combined with ICC, and so many other marketing agreements. We tried for weeks when I was at Uni to fathom out all the different combinations. Just the Caribbean is incredibly complex!
A more relevant, to me. is what qualifies as "national"? I don't want to define what I mean by that (cos I cannot)!
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Lloyd
An example would be England and Wales separate with FIFA, combined with ICC, and so many other marketing agreements. We tried for weeks when I was at Uni to fathom out all the different combinations. Just the Caribbean is incredibly complex!
A more relevant, to me. is what qualifies as "national"? I don't want to define what I mean by that (cos I cannot)!
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Lloyd
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It's quite simple Rob.
Great Britain is the larger island of the archipelago that makes up the British (and Irish) Isles - usually taken to mean England, Scotland and Wales.
The United Kingdom is properly "The United Kingdom of Great Britain (see above) and Northern Ireland" but does not include the Crown Dependencies (Jersey, Guernsey, Isle of Man - which are all self-governing, but the UK conducts external affairs for - things like defence, consular service, etc)
The "British" team ("TeamGB") at the Olympics is representative of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, plus Crown Dependencies and all British Overseas Territories that do not have their own National Olympic Association (so the Falklands is part of Team GB, Bermuda is not because it has it's own NOA)
Great Britain is the larger island of the archipelago that makes up the British (and Irish) Isles - usually taken to mean England, Scotland and Wales.
The United Kingdom is properly "The United Kingdom of Great Britain (see above) and Northern Ireland" but does not include the Crown Dependencies (Jersey, Guernsey, Isle of Man - which are all self-governing, but the UK conducts external affairs for - things like defence, consular service, etc)
The "British" team ("TeamGB") at the Olympics is representative of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, plus Crown Dependencies and all British Overseas Territories that do not have their own National Olympic Association (so the Falklands is part of Team GB, Bermuda is not because it has it's own NOA)
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hunnymonster said:
Does raise the question of why it isn't Team UK, though, given that NI athletes are included.
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Thanks for the response Hunnymonster - I think I now understand the Olympic thing but, based on your explanation that both GB and UK exclude the channel islands, is there a collective description that includes them - or is that just the British Isles?
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Why Team anything? Perhaps we should have Team Pompey, Team England, Team Scotland...............
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chrisbell said:
Because UK wouldn't include the Crown Dependencies. They might be close to the United Kingdom, but they aren't part of it, so TeamUK would be as inaccurate as TeamGB
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UKRob said:
No and the term "British Isles" is politically charged too - after all there's a sovereign nation within that archipelago that most definitely isn't British...
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UKRob, I think you'll find it easier to identify with if, like me, you say it in a Homer Simpson voice - "Team G B".
The marketing of brand "Team GB" was a deliberate move away from a 'British team'. It was a 2007 decision I believe. I don't know if you are au fait with 'the cola wars', Fanta and Nazism, Nixons ping-pong diplomacy etc. I'm sure our children will hear stuff we never imagined. As Camoron called on teachers to give free hours to sports in the same week he has removed the need for ANY sport from the timetable, and Gove stopped the £145m used to organise inter-school competitive sports, I guess it is all being set up to follow the example of cycling. Team Sky/gb, owned by an Australian with US citizenship for tax purposes.
The athletes will be like nurses, working really hard to make a few feel better and fewer still wealthier. Mo Farah trains at Nike HQ in Oregon. I really admire him, but ...... our sport/political parties on both sides of the Atlantic are funded by people of dubious nationality.
If you have watched "2012" on BBC, it REALLY WAS a documentary. No wonder the Yorkshire contingent are so keen to identify with their locality, there is precious little else in common now.
Yeah! I know. Me and politics - but elite sport has always been political, it was and is designed that way. Amateur/leisure sport was always different, but now it's becoming a milch cow, and so political too. This isn't to denigrate the competitors, after all, it wasn't Hitler that snubbed Jessie Owens, it was the American establishment.
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Lloyd
The marketing of brand "Team GB" was a deliberate move away from a 'British team'. It was a 2007 decision I believe. I don't know if you are au fait with 'the cola wars', Fanta and Nazism, Nixons ping-pong diplomacy etc. I'm sure our children will hear stuff we never imagined. As Camoron called on teachers to give free hours to sports in the same week he has removed the need for ANY sport from the timetable, and Gove stopped the £145m used to organise inter-school competitive sports, I guess it is all being set up to follow the example of cycling. Team Sky/gb, owned by an Australian with US citizenship for tax purposes.
The athletes will be like nurses, working really hard to make a few feel better and fewer still wealthier. Mo Farah trains at Nike HQ in Oregon. I really admire him, but ...... our sport/political parties on both sides of the Atlantic are funded by people of dubious nationality.
If you have watched "2012" on BBC, it REALLY WAS a documentary. No wonder the Yorkshire contingent are so keen to identify with their locality, there is precious little else in common now.
Yeah! I know. Me and politics - but elite sport has always been political, it was and is designed that way. Amateur/leisure sport was always different, but now it's becoming a milch cow, and so political too. This isn't to denigrate the competitors, after all, it wasn't Hitler that snubbed Jessie Owens, it was the American establishment.
love'n'joy
Lloyd