- other home nations can participate in qualifying events and disturb the competition: Switzerland was eliminated in the WC qualifiers because Scotland won their group, not a great benefit for them;
- conflict of interest can arise when two home nations play each other: England played both Wales and Scotland in the road to Tokyo...now England is much stronger than the other two but still it is weird to have situations like the game vs Wales, when the Welsh players would have eliminated themselves from the Olympics if they had won.
Plus England was cleared by the other federations as representative for GB quite late during the qualification process, I think everything should be settled before the start of the qualifications in order to be fair to other teams.
I agree that there is a potential conflict of interest. However, ask any Scot which they would much rather happen - Team GB qualify for the Olympics or Scotland beat England. 999 times out of a thousand they will say Scotland to beat England!!! Even the Scottish First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon said as much before the World Cup.
The same situation applies in hockey and rugby sevens where one of the home nations is nominated to qualify on behalf of Great Britain who then select from all the home nations if successful.
Although Hockey have sorted this for the Pro League this year for qualification
Posted (edited)
I agree that there is a potential conflict of interest. However, ask any Scot which they would much rather happen - Team GB qualify for the Olympics or Scotland beat England. 999 times out of a thousand they will say Scotland to beat England!!! Even the Scottish First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon said as much before the World Cup.
Edited by Cmon MaryMissing qualification
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