As reported on insidethegames, a deal was reached last Friday whereby the British teams at the Games will not contain any players from any of the other Home Countries.

 

A British football team has not competed at the Olympics since Rome 1960 and it had been feared that the men and women's sides would miss out on London 2012.

 

That was because Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland refused to get involved because they feared that it could jeopardise their independence to compete in events like the World Cup and European Championships.

 

It was a solution that Blatter, currently attending the FIFA Congress in the Bahamas, claimed that he was satisfied with.

 

He said: "I am happy because I said at the very beginning, don't make a big story out of it.

 

"You have to bring a GB team so just take one of the four associations and they did it.

 

"It is easy so I am happy, they are happy, the International Olympic Committee is happy and the [London] organising committee is happy."

 

Blatter had said the individual associations would not risk their independent status by playing as a joint team but the non-English associations had remained vehemently opposed to such a suggestion.

FIFA said it had received a letter signed by the four British Associations stating that both men's and women's teams would be made up solely of English players.
 

The arrangement is expected to be ratified at the FIFA congress in Nassau on Tuesday and will also need to be rubber-stamped by the British Olympic Association, which is expected to be a formality.