Korean Flags and Wales Gaffes Embarass ‘British’ Olympics

You would think that after all the pressure and threats the organisers of the London Olympics put on Scottish and Welsh footballers to join their “Team GB,” they might have learned something themselves about the difference between England and Britain.

They haven’t, if the match programme for Team GB’s opener against Senegal is to be believed.

Midfielder Joe Allen was born in Pembrokeshire in Wales. He plays for Welsh club Swansea City. He even is a proud member of that 20% of the population that speaks fluent Welsh. He is as obviously as Welsh as it is possible for any Welshman to be. And more. He probably knows every line of Sosban Fach by heart.

His name was one of those frequently mentioned in the debate over the last year about non English players that might be included in the “Team GB.” Eventually he became one of the five non English players selected by Stuart Pearce amid great fanfare about its exclusivity.

Yet, as he opened the match program preparing for the game, Allen was set for a surprise. His nationality was listed as English, a case of adding insult to fitness.

The other four–Ryan Giggs, Craig Bellamy, Aaron Ramsey and Neil Taylor–all thankfully  remained Welsh.

That was the second of two screw ups made by the London organisers. Confusing England with Wales is ignorant, but it is unlikely to start an international incident; Offa’s Dyke path being somewhat a less tense place than the 38th Parallel and far less militarised.

That was not the case with the other faux-pas.

The London Olympic Committee (LOCOG) made shiny videos to run before each game in the football tournament.

As the women of North Korea, not only a dictatorship but a notably paranoid and isolated one, warmed up for their match with Colombia in Glasgow, their faces were superimposed on the flag of South Korea.

The squad walked off and could only be persuaded to return an hour later when the teams were announced again with each player’s face displayed next to the North Korean flag.

LOCOG admitted the blunder which had caused red faces in Scotland where the match took place, a fact the Scottish press could not wait to point out.

London 2012 spokesman Andy Mitchell, himself a Scotsman, said: “A genuine mistake was made for which we apologise.”

He should know about the politics as much as anyone.

He previously worked for the Scottish Football Association, the body that told Team GB they would prefer it if Pearce didn’t pick any Scots.

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