The four home nations have agreed to reintroduce formal annual meetings as part of the process towards considering the reintroduction of a British team at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
It follows the British Olympic Association chief executive, Bill Sweeney, saying after the Rio 2016 Games that he hoped to focus on bringing football back in time for 2020.
The absence of a women’s team, in particular, was much lamented and following a meeting of the four home nations before the Uefa Congress on Wednesday the new FA chairman, Greg Clarke, said he was hopeful of making progress on the issue.
“I want to reach out and work with them and all four of us wanted to reintroduce the formal annual meeting where the four chairmen and presidents work together with our chief executives to resolve any outstanding issues,” Clarke said.
There remains reluctance on the part of the three other home nations to reinstate the British Olympic team but Clarke said he was hopeful that a new mood of cooperation would help.
Men’s and women’s teams took part at London 2012 but there was no agreement reached over their participation in Rio, despite the women’s side qualifying by virtue of England’s third place in the 2015 World Cup. The FA chief executive, Martin Glenn, said that Fifa’s president, Gianni Infantino, had recently underscored that a combined British Olympic team would not compromise the status of the four individual home nations.
“We’ve had a discussion with the home nations this morning on a range of issues,” Glenn said. “The CEOs of the home nations are going to sit down and take a look at it.
“The big fear in the past was that if we did it we would jeopardise our individual country status. That issue was sorted out under Blatter and Gianni has also reinforced it. That’s not the issue, it becomes whether it suits the interest of all the home nations.”
Clarke, who has been formally in post for nine days, said he hoped to approach relations with European countries in a similar spirit of cooperation and would soon embark on a tour to meet as many as possible.
“We need to be seen as a team player driving football forward,” he said. “Historically, we’ve been seen as a bit arrogant and standoffish. My personal aim is to knock that down and get out there and build a team agenda.
“If you have this approach of trying to reach out to people you find common ground, I’m going to get out there and meet people.”
