While support across England, Wales and Scotland is high for having a shared team at the Olympics, the countries would not want to join forces at other sporting events
As the Summer Olympics draw to a close, and with the Paralympics set to start soon, new YouGov data shows that while people in Scotland, Wales and England are happy to have a shared team at the Olympics, the sentiment doesn’t stretch to other sports competitions.
Two thirds of Scots (67%) prefer to have their own national teams, while a majority of Welsh people (54%) feel the same about Wales. In England, the enthusiasm for English national teams rather than a Great Britain team is not as high, but a greater share would still prefer it at 44% to 32%.
In fact, the reason Great Britain haven’t had a men’s football team in the past two Olympic Games is reportedly because of opposition from the football associations in the devolved nations.
However, when it comes to the Olympics, support across England, Scotland and Wales for competing as one team is high, with this being the preference for three in five English (62%) and Welsh (58%) people and half of Scots (51%).
A third of Scots (33%) would prefer to have their own national team at the Olympics, while a fifth of Welsh people (22%) and 15% of the English public would similarly prefer separate entries.
