NICE WHILE IT LASTED.....

In less than an hour`s time, Team GB will arrive at Heathrow Airport with their 47 Olympic medals to a very warm welcome from those there and the millions watching the live tv coverage.

Their achievements in forming the most successful Olympic team we`ve had for 100 years are quite magnificent and the nation is rightly proud that we finished in 4th place in the medal table behind China, the USA and Russia. And especially in front of Australia and Germany....and France. Following the formal handover of the Olympic flag to London Mayor Boris Johnson in Beijing last evening, we now look forward to the Games taking place in London in 2012.

All well and good. And things were going along nicely until.....yes, you`ve guessed it - until the politicians got involved. The picture above shows Sports Minister Gerry Sutcliffe limbering up in the gym ready for another hectic day of parliamentary duty. I wonder how happy he was to hear the news that Prime Minister Gordon Brown is determined that there will be a GB National football team competing in the London Games. If he`s anything like me, I shudder at the prospect. Looks like a hopeless task for poor Gerry.

First, he has to get the four seperate Football Associations of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland all to agree. An unlikely prospect, I suspect, for each one of them may fear for the future of their independance; FIFA may claim - not unreasonably - that if you can get together for the Olympics, then surely you can compete on the world football stage as Great Britain. Then there will be the problems of who to have as manager of the GB team and, of course, who the players will be. The choice of the politicians for the manager`s job appears to be between those two fine, upstanding representatives of fair play and eloquence, `Arry Redknapp and `Sir` Alex Ferguson. Redknapp is keen, Ferguson is being coy, presumably being aware that his style of management by hairdryer, teacup and incoherent Caledonian mumbling may not quite be in keeping with the Olympic ideal.

I suggest more `acceptable` candidates might be found from Northern Ireland and Wales in the form of Martin O`Neill and Mark Hughes respectively, but the argument may well be academic anyway, since the whole notion of a unified GB football team is frankly laughable.

As to the players, I think their reaction to a GB Olympic Team managed by either Redknapp or Ferguson is best summed up by current England captain, John Terry, pictured above when hearing Gordon Brown`s statement. Gerry Sutcliffe has yet to make any public comment. I can`t say I blame him, although, like his boss, no doubt his mind has already turned to how much reflected glory he can glean from our returning conquering heroes.