and the Channel Islands), which are technically not in the UK, are eligible for all four teams (e.g. Matt Le Tissier and Graeme Le Saux, both of whom opted for England), as were British citizens born outside the UK or its possessions – Eric Young (born in Singapore) and Pat van den Hauwe (born in Belgium) had previously opted for Wales under the same rule and Maik Taylor (born in Germany to a British father) used it to represent Northern Ireland – but residency criteria now also apply. United Kingdom Olympic history In the early years, the Olympic football competition was contested between amateur sides, and the British Olympic Committee agreed to let the England amateur team represent the entire UK. More recently the Olympic competition has been played by under-23s teams and Great Britain has not normally been represented. This is because qualification is based on the UEFA Under-21 championship, which means it is impossible for Great Britain to qualify as the national teams participate separately in that competition. There have been instances where an individual nation would have qualified, but a lower ranked nation has taken its place instead. An exception to this was the 2012 Summer Olympics, which were hosted to London. This meant that Great Britain qualified, by right of being host nation, for the football tournaments. While the English Football Association favoured the idea of a unified team for 2012, the other three federations opposed the concept. The Scottish Football Association was particularly strident in this view, fearing that a single UK team would jeopardise the independent status all four Home Nations enjoy. FIFA set a deadline of 1 June 2009 for the Home Nations to come to an agreement, which resulted in the four associations sending a letter to FIFA stating that while the Scottish, Welsh, and Northern Ireland associations still opposed the concept of a unified Great Britain team and would not participate in such a team, they would not prevent England from fielding a team under that banner. FIFA president Sepp Blatter officially approved the deal within days. However, even though the Welsh had said they would not participate in such a team, Welsh players such as Gareth Bale expressed an interest in playing for a unified team. The Football Association chose to disregard the agreement and selected five Welsh players for the men's team. The future of Great Britain Olympic teams