Sporting Devolution

I'm sure that I speak for everyone involved with anthem4england in congratulating Dean 'Machine' Macey for winning decathlon gold at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne. For me it was the highlight of the Games. 'Well done my son', as they say in Essex.

I often wonder what it means for the UK's althetes to compete for their home nations, as opposed to Great Britain. Certainly it's the case that the supporters of England, Scotland and Wales are far more passionate about supporting their teams and althetes than they are about supporting 'Team GB' - whoever heard an anthem sung with such gusto in support of a British sport?

If devolution is a good idea off the field of play why does the government have no passion for it in the sporting arena? In 2004, and again in 2005, we were treated to the spectacle of a Tour of Britain cycle race that included teams from Scotland, Wales, Ireland and Britain. There was no team England. The sporting federations, councils and government bodies of Scotland and Wales gave their full support to the respective Scottish and Welsh teams, but when it came to England the UK Government body in charge of English sport expressed the view that "Sport England does not believe that supporting an England team would be an appropriate use of public funds". Sport England also told us that an English team "would not be competitive either individually or collectively", a view that was rubbished by the performances of English cyclists at both the Manchester and Melbourne Games.

It's not about sport, but about money, and how much sporting success you can buy for that money. English basketball has been fighting for funding - and its very survival - in the last few years. You would expect that an English bronze medal in the men's basketball event would make Sport England dig into their pockets to help fund a successful grass-roots sport. Not a bit of it. Instead the English, Welsh and Scottish basketball federations must now come together and start applying for UK Treasury money to enable them to compete as Team GB at the Olympics. The England basketball team won't get to build on their success because, in sport, the Government does not like devolution; it's too tribal, and makes us forget that we are, after-all, first and foremost, British.

Richard Caborn, Minister for Sport, would tell you that 'that's just the way it is' and that we must compete as Great Britain because that is how we are recognised by international sporting federations, most notably the International Olympic Committee, but in the case of cycling the International Union of Cyclists. But that's just tradition, neither the IOC or the UIC have any rules that would forbid UK athletes competing on behalf of their home nations and national federations.

In the Daily Mirror (10 Aug, 2000) John Cross wrote an article entitled 'Proud to be British ...but gold for your country is better; SYDNEY 2000: The last time we will ever see a Great Britain Team at the Olympics.'

...as devolution - the break-up of the British political system - takes hold, every athlete will be able to proudly wear the colours of the land of their birth.

Who would Colin Jackson, the 110metres hurdles gold medal prospect at this summer's Sydney Games, really prefer to be running for - Great Britain or Wales?

It also means the nearly men from other nations would get a chance to represent their country instead of being forced out of a British team.

Edinburgh-born Wells won 100m Olympic gold at the 1980 Games and went from being a flying Scotsman to a British hero.

There may have been an American boycott, but that still could not reduce his achievement at winning sprint gold.

Wells said: "Nothing could compare to winning gold at the Olympics and I felt very proud to win it for Great Britain.

"But I'm a Scotsman first and foremost. That's my country and most Scots are deeply patriotic. It means everything to them.

"I would love to see more Scots on the medal podium and enjoying that success. It makes everyone feel so proud."

Mary Peters, who was born in Manchester but raised in Belfast, is a sporting legend in Northern Ireland after her pentathlon gold in the 1972 Munich Olympics and went on to found the country's Sports Council.

She said: "You feel immensely proud to be British, but the achievement is incredible for everyone at home."

Even Essex-born decathlete Dean Macey, one of Britain's best medal prospects in Sydney, believes Olympic sporting devolution is a good idea.

Macey said: "We'd have more people going and there are outstanding athletes from Wales and Scotland who may not go to the Olympics because of the current system."

With deadly accuracy Macey nails it; we should compete as separate nations in order for the Scots and Welsh to get a look in. That's the reason we had political devolution; why not apply the same principles to sport, and indeed anthems? Maybe then we can have an English sports council committed to supporting English, rather than British, sport, and maybe then we can start singing for England too.