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| Illustration of the flag of Great Britain (United Kingdom / UK) and four teams from UK who are given the same chance by FIFA to fight for tickets in the World Cup. At the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, the two UK teams that qualified were England and Wales |
At the Qatar 2022 World Cup this time, it turns out that one country has fielded two teams, and both of them happen to be in the same group.
Both are Wales and England, and both are in Group B in the World Cup finals this time. On November 29, 2022, the two will meet, civil war at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
How come this happened and was permitted by FIFA as the highest parent organization for football in the world?
The story is quite long, but actually it's not new. In fact, it had happened in 1958, four teams from one country entered the 1958 World Cup final round in Sweden. Four teams are England, Wales, Scotland as well as Northern Ireland.
In the political and national context, the four teams are part of the same country, namely the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, which is often called the United Kingdom for short – and is widely translated in Indonesia as England.
Regarding the word "English", quite a lot (especially the media) in Indonesia, when they find the words "England", "United Kingdom" and "Great Britain" they immediately translate them as England. Just equated.
It is true that there are those who translate Great Britain as Great Britain, but it seems that there are not so many of them. Which is more often found, Great Britain yes translated English. I don't know if this is for practical reasons or for some other reason.
Consequently, the word “England” is translated “English”; "United Kingdom" is also called "England" and "Great Britain" are still many who translate it as "England".
Likewise, the table name plate in front of Prime Minister (PM) Rishi Sunak at the new Bali G20 Summit was written "United Kingdom", and the media then wrote it British PM Rishi Sunak. So, again, United Kingdom is translated into English.
In fact, England, Great Britain and the United Kingdom are three different things.
It should be noted, that so far the common people refer to as the United Kingdom is an island nation located off the northwestern coast of Europe.
In the archipelago there are two large islands. The largest island is Great Britain ( great means large), followed by Ireland.
On the island called Great Britain there are three autonomous regions namely England, Wales and Scotland. The autonomous region is more or less like the states in the United States.
Thus, it is clear that England, Wales and Scotland are not countries.
So, the name Great Britain actually points more to geography than to country. In Indonesia, some translate Great Britain as Great Britain.
Meanwhile, the official name of the UK is actually very long, namely the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Translation: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
However, in general in international forums/associations, the name of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is usually referred to briefly as the United Kingdom, even just called the UK.
So what's the English translation?
Quoting several sources, some translate United Kingdom as Great Britain, Great Britain as Great Britain, and England as England.
In this context, it can be concluded that the United Kingdom (UK) or Great Britain is a sovereign country which includes, among others, England (England), Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Meanwhile, Great Britain or Great Britain is the largest island within the territory of Great Britain.
While England (England) is one of the four autonomous regions in the United Kingdom (United Kingdom) besides Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Why did FIFA allow four teams from Great Britain?
Why is Great Britain allowed by FIFA to have different teams in the World Cup (FIFA World Cup), why not just one team on behalf of Great Britain?
In fact, not only in the World Cup, in the EURO event there are also four tickets available for each of the four autonomous regions in Great Britain (namely England/England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland).
In fact, article 11 paragraph 1 of the FIFA rules states: " Only one association (football) is recognized as a member association (FIFA) in each country ."
Given that FIFA defines a "country" as " an independent nation recognized by the international community ", then there should only be one team for Great Britain, not more than one as is currently the case.
In the United Nations membership seat (United Nations), for example, there is only one seat for the United Kingdom.
Similarly, the contingent performing at the Olympics is on behalf of the United Kingdom (United Kingdom). No England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland contingent.
So, there is an impression that FIFA is anaxing the United Kingdom, and discriminatory towards other countries, because there are four teams from the United Kingdom who are given the opportunity to fight for tickets in the World Cup event.
But, that's the truth. Just look, the article 11 paragraph 1 of the above FIFA rules turned out to be subject to paragraph 5 of the same article, which read: “Each of the four United Kingdom football associations is recognized as a separate FIFA member association.”
In his article on The Sun on November 13 2022, Jude Efson wrote that for years, some football fans in Great Britain actually hoped that world-class players from England (England) and Wales would play together in one team on behalf of Great Britain. .
They even dream, if at the 2022 World Cup Qatar, Gareth Bale (who is from Wales) can form a team with the England duo, Harry Kane and Raheem Sterling, in the Great Britain national team, wow how extraordinary the attacking power of the Great Britain team will be.
However, hope remains hope, and wishful thinking is clearly not reality.
According to Thomas Smith in his article " Why Does Great Britain Have Separate Football Teams ?" at www.sqaf.club, the origins of international football tournaments (of course including the football world championships, ed ) are from Great Britain in the late 19th century. 1872 to be exact.
let's read too : 2022 World Cup Results: Uruguay Vs South Korea Ends Without Winners
Some even write, since 1883 Scotland with England (England), Wales and Ireland have played international tournaments together between them.
The four of them were later referred to by FIFA as Home Nations, which is defined as the Countries of Origin of Football.
In other words, the FIFA organization is actually junior compared to the Home Nations football association. FIFA's experience and "flying hours" as a football organization are far behind compared to Home Nations.
For these historical reasons, when FIFA was founded, this organization was reluctant and respected the football associations of England (England), Wales, Scotland and Ireland, so FIFA gave privileges when the four of them registered as different entities (teams). , which it holds until recently.
This fact has been going on for hundreds of years, and it seems impossible to reform.
It is possible that, with political power, the central government of Great Britain will force the formation of a national football team (timnas) for Great Britain, namely by merging the teams of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland into one team. And that has happened at the 2012 Olympics in London.
At that time, in football, Great Britain was represented by a national team. There are no separate teams for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
However, the World Cup (World Cup) turned out to be special and a different case.
In the World Cup, each football association from the Home Nations (England/England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland) managed to keep showing its own teams.
The prestige of football in the Olympics is considered lower than the prestige of football in the World Cup.
Don't try to tamper with the composition, and force Great Britain to appear as a national team in the World Cup. It would be a political issue if the British government forced the merging of four teams into just one Great Britain team.
If enforced, the spirit of the tribes of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland could be triggered to rise, and there was a possibility that they would demand secession from Great Britain, especially Scotland which had the greater potential.
Merging football teams from the four Home Nations into one Great Britain team also goes against the trend of political decentralization for them, said William Allen in his article entitled “ Why do England, Scotland, Wales & Northern Ireland play as separate teams if they belong to UK ?” at www.en.as.com on 12 June 2021.
Football observer Szymanski even believes that forcing the formation of a single Great Britain national team will contribute to the breakdown of the United Kingdom state.
If Great Britain put pressure on FIFA, so that eventually there is a single Great Britain team at the World Cup instead of the four Home Nations teams it has so far, “then Scotland will really demand independence,” Szymanski said as quoted by www.allfootballapp.com.
Szymanski said the people of Scotland held an independence referendum (to separate from Great Britain) in 2014, and the pro-independence vote was only narrowly lost to the pro-British vote.
If they were forced to form a United Kingdom team, said Szymanski, then the possibility of Scottish pro-independence supporters would increase and the territory might actually be separated from Great Britain.
According to Szymanski, maintaining the football team of each Home Nations is a way to express the pride of each ethnic group in Great Britain.
If the only way to express pride was also suppressed, said Szymanski, there would be a large number of supporters of Scottish independence.
"I have no doubts about that," said Szymanski.(sunarko)
