AIBU to wonder why the UK gets 4 teams in the World Cup, whereas France only gets one.

[TheKittenswithMittens]

Why don't we play as UK in the World Cup? Why do we get 4 teams when everyone else gets just the one? It would bring an end to anyone but England sentiment.

That just reads like they don’t want to change and don’t really care what those in NI think 🤷‍♀️

I don’t get why you would say they are the same country in your opinion then?
Theyre not the same country so mine or your opinion on it doesn’t really matter because the fact is, they’re not the same country 🤷🏻‍♀️

I particularly liked OP comment 'I AM A SOMEBODY!' 😂

Historically yes, not now.

England historically has had a distinct legal system but the jurisdiction included Wales. See Halsbury's Laws of England.

It's interesting, though, that tiny countries with whole populations totalling not much more than the number of people in the Eurovision stadium each get exactly the same voting power as the UK, Germany, France and the other big countries.

On the flip side, that does of course mean that they have a much, much tinier pool of talent to draw on for their own entry unless you're San Marino and you just get international celebs in anyway!

Where does it come from, though? Is it the fact that the population of England is much larger, or that the England football team tends to do far better than the Scottish one?

Normally, attitudes and behaviours like this would be clearly considered bullying - however long it's gone on for - unless it's literally seen as the little people punching up at the bigger, better ones?

We're not actually separate, though. If we were, there would be absolutely no point in campaigns for Scottish or Welsh independence, if we're already separate.

Yes, we have distinctive cultural differences within the home nations, devolution of power, individual parliaments, minority languages etc. at play - but it's stretching it massively to claim that we're actually separate countries.

Yes, there are historical and organisational quirks in things like the World Cup, meaning that the different home nations can each send in a team; but that doesn't actually make us four separate countries as the situation stands.

It’s rugby union who have the ‘Lions’ and it’s actually 5 ‘nations’ and it’s called British and Irish Lions.

Well to me they are!

Are you bored or just uneducated?

Do you know that not only do the 4 nations enter the Commonwealth Games separately so does the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands.

in some sporting competitions residents of Northern Ireland can chose to compete in the UK team, the GB team or the Eire team.

Sporting competitions get to set their own rules.

even if you don’t like it

Are you from NI @Differentforgirls?
It’s an unusual opinion if not.
Although I do notice on MN quite few posters from GB mix up Ireland and Northern Ireland— they say Ireland when they’re talking about NI, or think the Irish government has control over what happens in Belfast, or they refer to NI loyalists as Irish etc 🤔

No. Scotland.

Women riding bicycles was a symbol of freedom, which many resisted and some men even reacted violently to in Cambridge in the 1890s, when the male students hung up and burnt effigies (of a woman on a bicycle) during street protests because women demanded the right to be awarded degrees at Cambridge university - they were allowed to study and take the exams but not be given the degree and membership of the university.

Okay then.

Ireland is a sovereign state located on the island of Ireland. Sometimes known as the Republic of Ireland, but that’s not its official name, Ireland is.

So you can see how you saying NI is part of Ireland can be confusing unless you clearly specify it’s the island you’re talking about. NI is not part of the country of Ireland.

Some people in Northern Ireland don’t agree with the official names and don’t use them. Maybe you don’t either? That doesn’t mean they’re not the official names though, which is the relevant bit when it comes to the World Cup.

To add, Ireland’s football team is known as Republic of Ireland for historical reasons to do with partition, but as I said the state is officially called Ireland.

Like Yorkshire, say. Has a similar size of population too!

Interesting that NI athletes can compete for either Team GB or Ireland.

OP - you're starting to sound like Jay from The Inbetweeners a little bit.

But back to the point. It's literally Googleable:

A constituent country is an administrative division that makes up part of a larger sovereign state. While they are referred to as "countries," they lack full international sovereignty, meaning the central overarching government handles national issues like defense and foreign affairs.

The most famous example is the United Kingdom, which is a single sovereign state comprised of four constituent countries:

England
Northern Ireland
Scotland
Wales

We play as constituent countries in the FIFA world cup, we play as a single sovereign state in the Olympics.

We do not play football as a single state anywhere.
What other sports do is irrelevant.

I know! Did you read my post properly? "We play as constituent countries in the FIFA world cup" Where did I mention playing football as a "single state"?

You mentioned Olympics Team GB does not enter a football team.

I read your first patronising sentence and that was it. Sorry you wasted all that time 😂

Sometimes does, the women played in Japan

We'll have to agree to disagree about this one as I honestly can't understand what you're talking about.

Sorry, but you sounded confused 🤷‍♀️
Guessing now it’s political for you.