First time around, all of 102 years ago, international competition in the sport outside the UK was in its infancy.

So it is little surprise that the British team, which consisted solely of English amateur players, took gold, beating Denmark 2-0 in the final.

It was a strong line-up by the standards of the time, with at least seven of those who beat the Danes being good enough to win full England caps.

The star was captain Vivian Woodward of Tottenham Hotspur, whose record of 29 international goals for the full England team stood until 1958, when Preston legend Tom Finney overhauled it.

But with only six teams entered - two of them from France (both dispatched by Denmark by an aggregate score of 26-1) - it was not in all honesty a hugely testing competition.

There should have been eight sides, but Hungary and Bohemia had to scratch, as noted in the Official Report, "owing to political trouble in the Balkans".

What the report does not say is that this "political trouble" eventually triggered the First Great War.

Woodward was one of a number of top footballers who enlisted, joining a unit of the Middlesex Regiment that became known as the Footballers' Batallion.

He was wounded in 1916, but went on to live into old age.

Indeed, he might well have attended the Olympic football tournament of 1948 which - though only three years after World War Two - was far more eclectic and competitive.

The Official Report described the competition as "the most varied and colourful ever staged in England, the home of the game" – a verdict with which, at this distance, it is hard to disagree.

Afghanistan were represented, as were China, just a year before the Communist takeover, and Korea, two years before the outbreak of the Korean War.

The United States were blitzed 9-0 by Italy, though the Report notes that they suffered from lack of "serious match practice", while Egypt created a good impression - "[they] would be very hard to beat on their own grounds" - before going down to Denmark, eventual bronze medallists, after extra time.

Nine of the Indian team, which lost only 2-1 to France, played without boots.

"Several had their feet bound in bandages to make up for lack of footwear," notes the Report, "but not one shirked even the heaviest tackle".

The eclecticism of the competition was further enhanced, meanwhile, by staging games not just at Arsenal, Tottenham and Wembley, but Ilford, Dulwich and Walthamstow, where Turkey beat the close-passing Chinese team 4-0.

The deserved gold medallists were Sweden, whose powerful side included probably the competition's best player: Gunnar Nordahl (pictured).

Within months of the final, in which Sweden beat Yugoslavia 3-1, Nordahl found himself at AC Milan, where he was soon joined by two of the Olympic champions' other stars, Gunnar Gren and Nils Liedholm.

In eight seasons with Milan, Nordahl - whose two brothers played alongside him in London - was the league's top scorer no fewer than five times, eventually finishing with a huge tally of 225 Serie A goals.

Amongst other all-time greats to feature in the competition was Austria's Ernst Ocwirk, an attacking centre-half of the old school - although Austria had the misfortune to encounter Sweden in their one and only match, which they lost 3-0.

A measure of how good this Swedish Olympic side was is that, two years later, Sweden finished third at the first post-war World Cup in Brazil in 1950 - a result obtained without their three Milan-based stars who, as professionals, could not turn out for their still amateur national team.

For all this, my main interest in the Olympic tournament was the British team which this time, though still amateur and thus not featuring the likes of wing wizard Stanley Matthews, included players from all four constituent countries of the United Kingdom: England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.

It was coached, moreover, by someone now recognised as one of the really great club managers: the Scotsman, Matt Busby.

The Official Report's verdict on the team's unexpected run to fourth place in the competition could apply to pretty much any British side's performance in any major international competition since: "The side's lack of technical ability was made up by team spirit and enthusiasm," it said.

"Few, even in England, expected Great Britain to reach the last four. That she did so was due largely to coach Matt Busby."

Where Sweden had the Nordahl brothers and the future so-called Gre-No-Li trio of AC Milan, Great Britain's "backbone" comprised the two Erics - Lee of Chester City and Fright of Bromley.

The Report also comments with approval on the play of Denis Kelleher, "a quick, clever inside-forward".

According to an obituary I located on the medical website BMJ.com, Dungarvan-born Kelleher - who was to go on to become a doctor - had spent part of the decade as a German prisoner-of-war after being captured at Tobruk.

He escaped, reached the Baltic at Lübeck, stowed away on a collier and eventually made it to, yes, Sweden.

After all of that, a mere Olympic football tournament must have seemed a breeze.

The team also included Scotman Dougie McBain, one of a sizeable Queen's Park contingent, who went on to become a legend with the Dumfries club Queen of the South.

Other notables were John 'Bob' Hardisty (pictured), who won the FA Amateur Cup three times with Bishop Auckland, and Frederick 'Peter' Kippax of Burnley and, for one solitary match - on March 12, 1949 -  Liverpool.

In some ways, it was the two goalkeepers who had the most remarkable stories of all, though.

Scot Ronnie Simpson was not yet 18 when he helped Great Britain to overcome a technically more accomplished Dutch side in a thrilling opening match at Highbury. The game went to extra-time, with Great Britain prevailing by the odd goal in seven.

Nineteen years later, Simpson found himself feted as one of the Lisbon Lions, after his Glasgow Celtic side upset Milan's Internazionale to become the first British team to win the European Cup.

Kevin McAlinden, who took over for the 1-0 quarter-final victory at Craven Cottage over France and the 3-1 semi-final defeat by Yugoslavia, was also a Celtic man – Belfast Celtic.

As such, within months of playing in the Olympics, he found himself present for one of the dark days of Belfast football history – the Boxing Day 1948 derby with Linfield.

An article published last year by the Belfast Telegraph - describes how fans invaded the pitch after an explosive match capped by an improbable last-gasp equaliser for Linfield, who were playing, in effect, with eight men.

"Celtic centre-forward Jimmy Jones was chased by a mob," the author, Malcolm Brodie, writes, "forced over a parapet between the running track and reserved enclosure, landed on his hands and knees and then received a broken right leg when kicked as he attempted to get up".

Describing it as "the blackest day in Irish football history", Brodie also reveals that McAlinden and another player were "manhandled, but uninjured".

Celtic withdrew from football at the end of the season, although they embarked on an American tour in 1949, during which they recorded a surprise 2-0 win over Scotland, the reigning Home International champions, with McAlinden outstanding.

Along with, I am sure, many other UK-based football fans, I am hoping wholeheartedly that the spirit of that 1948 Olympic team can be honoured in 2012 through the selection of genuinely British men's and women's football squads.

Who knows, maybe the men might even have the benefit of a Scottish coach every bit as canny as the late Matt Busby.

David Owen worked for 20 years for the Financial Times in the United States, Canada, France and the UK. He ended his FT career as sports editor after the 2006 World Cup and is now freelancing, including covering the 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2010 World Cup. Owen's Twitter feed can be accessed at www.twitter.com/dodo938