Olympic & Paralympic Games London 2012

[Starvinho]

I was just gonna post this in the football thread but I guess we're gonna need an Olympics thread eventually with it being less than a year away. Anyways...

JOHANNESBURG: Egypt will host a tournament this year to decide which nations represent Africa at the 2012 London Olympic Games football tournament.

It involves Algeria, Egypt, Gabon, Ivory Coast, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal and South Africa after they survived a three-round, home-and-away elimination process.

A draw during the September meeting of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) in Cairo will split the teams into two groups for the November 26-December 10 tournament.

The top three finishers in an event that doubles as the first CAF under-23 championship qualify automatically for the Games and the fourth-best team go into a play-off with an Asian country.

Egypt have represented Africa at the Olympics football tournament a record 10 times while Gabon and Senegal are seeking a first appearance.

Football at the 2012 Summer Olympics

[Colly]

Someone just let me know when tickets are back on sale. Thousands unsold, further details in 'winter'. Delightfully vague.

[Lineker]

Little early for the Olympics thread no?!

Anyway, I got some tickets so its all good.

[Cymbols]

Can't wait for the olympics!

Going to see the football, badminton and table tennis.

[Lineker]

Wales midfielder Gareth Bale has risked upsetting some Welsh football fans by becoming the first player to pose in a British Olympic team supporters' shirt.

The Football Association of Wales, along with those of Scotland and Northern Ireland, has opposed its players playing in the British team.

The Tottenham star has said he wants to play for Team GB at London 2012.

And a British Olympic Association spokesman said he was a natural choice to be used in the photograph.

He told the BBC: "We have maintained all along that Team GB will allow for the consideration, and possible inclusion, of players from any of the Home Nations, so it only makes sense that Gareth would appear in the photo."

However, Bale's decision to make his position so clear, by becoming the first player to model the kit, will be controversial.

FA of Wales chief executive Jonathan Ford told the BBC: "Our position remains unchanged. We are not for Team GB.

"Gareth can make his own choices and make his own decisions. But we are not going to stop anyone playing."

The official team kit will be launched next year.

The shirt which Bale is wearing is a limited edition shirt for supporters. It has been produced to celebrate the four home nations coming together to form Team GB.

The blue shirt has red and white trim and a union jack logo painted into the main body.

Although it is not the same as the team's version, it is believed to be similar and the supporters' shirts will go on sale in two weeks' time.

A spokesman for Gareth Bale said that "while he is 100% Welsh, he is also British".

[Gazz]

Want

[Colly]

Want in a bigger size.

[cmb211087]

Want! Amazing top!

[Baddar]

Yeah, that's awesome.

Also, fuck the FAW and whoever else that doesn't approve of Welsh players being in the team.

[Adam]

Do the Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish football associations have ANY say at all in this matter or is it only a case of them disapproving but the players go and play anyway because there is nohing to legally stop them. For me I'm excited by the prospect of Team GB featuring Bale, Ramsey and others rather than it just being an England U23 team with David Beckham in it.

[Colly]

None at all, they can make vague threats about not picking them, but if Wales went the next decade without picking Bale I'll eat everyone's hats.

[Lineker]

And he knows it.

Silly FAW.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

That's an amazing top. Definitely want it. Hope the actual kit is that good.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

It also makes me wish that England would drop their link with Umbro.

[Lineker]

Great Britain's Olympic football teams will play their group matches at Old Trafford, Wembley and the Millennium Stadium in 2012.

The men's team, led by Stuart Pearce, will play their three group fixtures in Manchester, London and Cardiff.

Hope Powell's women will play their first two group matches in Cardiff and the third in London.

Tickets for the men's Olympic football tournament go on sale on 29 November, while the draw takes place on 24 April.

The events were previously on-sale as part of the original Olympic ballot - but people will now be able to apply for specific matches.

The men's team will begin their London 2012 campaign at Old Trafford on Thursday, 26 July, followed by Wembley Stadium on Sunday, 29 July and Cardiff's Millennium Stadium on Wednesday, 1 August.

The women's team will begin the tournament on Wednesday, 25 July - the first day of Olympic action - at the Millennium Stadium, followed by Saturday, 28 July at the same venue.

Their final group stage match will take place on Tuesday, 31 July at Wembley.

However, a spokesman for the Football Association of Wales has told BBC Sport they are seeking clarification whether they, as the host association, have to sanction the 2012 Olympic fixtures planned for the Millennium Stadium.

The FAW is against Welsh players representing Team GB at the Olympics as it fears a British team threatens its independence as a separate football nation.

"The prospect of Team GB taking part in the Games has captured the imagination of the public and we are pleased to be able to confirm their group stage fixtures ahead of tickets going back on sale," said Debbie Jevans, director of sport for the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (Locog).

"With teams like Spain and Brazil already qualified and fantastic venues across the country, the Olympic football tournaments promise to be a great family day out at the Olympic Games next summer."

[Colly]

Tickets finally going back on sale. Yay!

[Cymbols]

I got olympic football tickets . I hope we see Team GB.

[Lineker]

Elbow are to record the BBC's soundtrack for the London 2012 Olympic Games, it has been announced.

The band, who won the Mercury Music Prize in 2008 for their album The Seldom Seen Kid, have composed a six-minute specially-commissioned track.

Lead singer Guy Garvey said they were "knocked out" to get the role, and the band felt "real responsibility".

The news came as the BBC announced its cultural programmes for the Olympics and the London 2012 Festival.

They include a season of Shakespeare programmes, Music Nation and Radio 1's Hackney Weekend 2012.

The Elbow theme will be used by the BBC across its Olympic content. Further details of the track itself have yet to be released.

Guy Garvey said: "We are knocked out to be involved and it's been quite a challenge.

"We have feelings of real responsibility as we will be the soundtrack to so many images of personal sacrifice and endeavour while the nation roots for and celebrates with Team GB."

The BBC's Director of London 2012 Roger Mosey said Elbow's piece had yet to be recorded. The first bars of it would be aired around the time of the torch relay beginning in May 2012, with the full work revealed near the Olympic Games opening ceremony.

Writing in his blog, he said: "It should be just-about the most heard piece of music in 2012.

"This builds on our recent tradition of using great British contemporary artists to deliver our music, as we did with Damon Albarn in 2008; and we reckon Elbow have a unique combination of credibility - hence their Mercury Prize - with a style that can be enjoyed by people of all ages."

In 2011 Elbow celebrate the 20th anniversary of their formation in Bury, Greater Manchester and in October they played a gig at Manchester Cathedral as part of BBC Radio 2's In Concert series.

The five-piece have been nominated for the Mercury Music Prize three times, including this year for the album Build a Rocket Boys!

In 2009, they won two Ivor Novello awards for songs One Day Like This and Grounds for Divorce. That year they also played two ground-breaking concerts with Manchester's Hallé Orchestra.

BBC Radio 3's Music Matters host and Guardian writer Tom Service said artists had to "get it right" at the times when the spectacles of sport and music "come together in harmony" as with Freddie Mercury and Montserrat Caballé's Barcelona, used at the 1992 Games, or the Three Tenors performing at football's Italia '90 World Cup.

He said Elbow should produce: "The perfect fusion of an anthem with a lot of musical substance to it."

"And it's a chance to plug into communities and show how music really matters to people and connects them with orchestras and rock bands - for audiences in pubs as well as in stadiums and concert halls."

He said the huge undertaking was writing a short piece of music with artistic integrity that summed up the occasion: "If you think about Barcelona or Puccini for the Three Tenors, it has to be great music, that's the competition it's up against.

"Those things are remembered because of the event but also because it's a great piece of music."

The track will follow in the footsteps of previous BBC Olympic themes including the Monkey theme by Albarn's group Gorillaz for Beijing 2008; Athens 2004, Sydney 2000, Barcelona 1992, Seoul 1988 and Los Angeles 1984.

[Adam]

Hugh Robertson advises GB athletes to know national anthem

I've got no problem with Mr. Robertson's suggestion, but it is what is actually discussed in the article that has gotten my attention. The whole thing has been brought up because a Daily Mail reporter asked Team GB captain Tiffany Porter to recite God Save the Queen because she is from America but competes for Britain. She said she didn't feel the request was necessary. So Jonathan McEvoy then ran with this article as a result, and it has physically angered me. This article attacks Porter basically because she isn't "actually" British and talks about how Mo Farah or Jessica Ennis shouldn't have to be led by her. It's ironic enough coming forward with this argument and then claiming that Farah should lead the team - he's Sudan born and lives in America, and he trains with the Africans a lot because they're the best. So surely this jumped up journalist should be villifying him too? He also attacks Van Commenee for appointing her and of course points out that he's not English either. Porter's mother is English, and even besides that I don't see what the problem is. There is no need for such blatant xenophobia. What distresses me is that some people actually seem to agree with him!

I hope he's happy though, because UK Athletics have withdrawn team access to the squad from the Daily Mail. What do people think to this?

Edited March 9, 2012 by AdamDRFC

[Colly]

I'm delighted, and as long as the list of things the Mail is banned from (they can't come to SJP anymore) continues to grow I'll continue to be.

Not fussed re the anthems to be honest.