To dislike the term "Team GB"

[somebloke123]

First it's factually wrong since athletes from Northern Ireland are eligible, which is part of the UK (=Britain) but not part of the island of Great Britain.

Also what's all this "team" business about anyway? We don't say "Team Arsenal" or "Team Manchester United".

Are we the only country to host the Olympics to not even call itself by its real name?

Isn't 'UK' the 'United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland'? Therefore UK doesn't in fact = GB. Therefore Team UK would be preferable? Personally I like the 'team...' thing, but agree we ought to get it right...

Yep, bloke it's a v irritating term. YANBU.

I agree. The football team was referred to as "England" countless times by the commentators.

I would be spitting feathers about this if I were a NI athlete. It should be Team UK.

Was thinking exactly the same bloke.
If I was from NI, would be mightly pissed off. Surprised we haven't heard more fuss about it.

It makes me think of Team America, and then I start laughing.

The English are British and lots of people think the British are English but that annoys the Scottish and Welsh because although some think they're British and some think they aren't and some think they are but don't want to be, they all agree that they definitely are not English. The Irish mostly think they are Irish, apart from the ones who are Northern Irish. Some say that makes them British and Irish. But others disagree and say they should just be Irish and then some say they aren't British either but part of the United Kingdom. People from England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland can all play cricket for England because they're British as can those from Ireland even though they aren't British. So can South Africans. The English play football for England unless they aren't that good when they might try to play for Ireland. Those from the Isle of Wight are English, from Anglesey are Welsh and the Orkneys are Scottish, but although that means they aren't from the island of Great Britain they're still British. The Channel Islanders depend on the crown which is what the Queen wears but they aren't in the UK and those from the Isle of Man are the same, apart from their cats.

Isn't the football team England and Wales because the other FAs refused to allow their players to join in?

Ha ha, Chicken, one of my favourite films.

You may well be right narked. I started watching last night's match against Senegal but switched of after a while. It seemed a boring and pointless game with a team representing a non-country.

The official name of the team is Great Britain. There are all sorts of rules about the names and what you can and can't use.

The same with the three letter code, team GB use GBR, Ukraine use UKR, so what would our three letter code be?

And why do cars have GB on the back when you go abroad?

Anyone rememeber 'The Republic of China' - which menat that China could not compete until 1984 when Taipai agreed to use a different name.

People from Northern Ireland can choose if they want to be selected for the Great British or Irish teams.

www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/rogermosey/2009/09/why_team_gb.html

AKMD - I laughed out loud when I read that on the BBC website

Just calll the team England and be done with it. Scotland can have it's own team if it wants. Seems to work perfectly well for Cricket and we are #1 in the world at that sport.

But there are Scottish, Welsh and Irish people in Team GB (just no Scots in the football team) why would we call it England?

Are you my DH somebloke?
He spent most of last night expressing his dislike of the name!
I don't understand it either. Seems a cumbersome name. Aren't we just 'Britain'?

I dislike the term Team GB, for no other reason, than it sounds really American.

redlac: It's just simpler. The Scots Irish and Welsh don't seem to like the Team GB name either so it won't make any difference to them. The England cricket team represeents England and Wales and that seems to work perfectly well.

denise34 nice sweeping generalisation there! have you consulted all the athletes who are taking part in Team GB?

More fool the Welsh for having to be lumped in with your England cricket team

away an bile yer heid

If you like this thread, you'll love this one.

Haven't they adopted this "Team" thing from Twilight? Team Edward...Team Werewolf boy (can't remember his name). That's where I heard it first.

So, really it should be Team UK, shouldn't it?

The "team" bit doesn't bother me, but then I've been known to refer to my family as "Team Sacvo" to try and discourage the DC not kill each other and work together.