Why A Team GB Football Team Will Increase The Chances Of Welsh Independence

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Two things with regard to Welsh football happened in the past few days. Firstly the Welsh language channel S4C broadcast in full (as it was the third anniversary) the Euro 2016 quarter final between Wales and Belgium.

You can understand why they did it. After all it was the greatest night in Welsh football history. Beating the overwhelming pre match favourites conclusively (after having gone a goal down) 3-1 to reach the semi-finals.

It was also though bittersweet. The Welsh team of today has not reached those heights. And to say the least the future of Ryan Giggs as manager is up for debate.

Which leads us to the other news. Apparently England's success in the Women's World Cup (qualifying it should be noted by beating Wales) means that there will be a Team GB team in the next Olympics. Theoretically then Welsh players can play in this Team GB. It raises the questions then "Should they?" and "What would be the consequences?"

Now a quick aside the BBC Sports Wales Twitter feed brought the news by tweeting this: "Which Welsh Players deserve to be selected for Team GB?".

Deserve? From the organisation that brought you "Are we all English now?" in reaction to England's good performance in the World Cup last year that use of the word "deserve" really betrays a tug your forelock attitude. The state broadcaster (certainly with regard to English language broadcasts) seems to act with a certain amount of deference to England unless the ball is egg shaped. Anecdotally people's general attitude to the BBC has declined in recent years. And this doesn't help.

So back to the questions. Should Welsh players participate in a Team GB Women's team? The answer is of course no. Wales is a nation. Allowing this to happen might damage it's very status within FIFA (to move on to question two).

However there is another set of consequences that need to be noted. Unionists would obviously be happy with such an outcome. You can see Alun "Chucky" Cairns wetting himself at such a prospect.

But as I've discussed before Wales is a different nation now. If anything such a loss of nationhood would be felt by most Welsh people (whether unionist or not) to be a bad thing. Sport has the ability to unify and if that's taken away then it will be another substantial example of the destruction to the Welsh way of life Unionism has brought.

Consequently this will increase the already rising tide for Welsh independence. For whilst independence can never promise sporting success it will always promise that it's teams will be Welsh.

Until the next time.