What The Beck?

It has taken England a long time to gain the honour of hosting the 2012 Olympics, in fact it will be 64 years since they last hosted them when the games get under way next year.

They are determined to make every post a winner, no doubt in the hope that they can convince FIFA in due course that they are worthy hosts of the World Cup.

The football side of the Olympics has been rife with issues. At the Olympic Games, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland compete as Great Britain. In the Football World they compete as individual nations.

Football contributes at least a third of all of the Olympic revenue, and is a key component to making the games profitable. Therefore the land that claims to have invented the game needs to perform well.

There were fears that if a Great Britain side took to the field then FIFA and especially the European arm, UEFA would be pressured into making all four nations compete as one in their tournaments. IT may in fact mean more chance of success, but rivalries run deep and this is not wanted by each nation. This stumbling block appears to have been overcome, and former England defender Stuart Pearce is the man with the unenviable task of picking a squad of under 23 players from the four nations.

He is allowed three over age players, and the word is that to ensure commercial success he is being pressured to pick David Beckham as his captain for the tournament, and as one of the over age players. There is even talk that Beckham will carry the flag into the stadium.

First and foremost we believe that a traditional track and field athlete who has had success on the World stage should be given the Flag bearing honour, as the Olympic Games are their event. Mr Beckham has had more than his five minutes in the limelight; why not recognize the achievements of another athlete who has undoubtedly worked just as hard to reach the top in their chosen field?

If this is a time for sentimentality why not give the honour of captaining the British Olympic team to a player from Wales, Northern Ireland or Scotland who has served the game well but has not graced the World stage because they have failed to qualify for a World Cup in recent years, Ryan Giggs is one name that springs to mind.

To select Beckham would be a purely commercial reason, and the Olympic Games should be above such a move. Sadly though if it means more ticket sales and more television viewers the coach could see the decision taken out of his hands, what do you think?