Olympic football

[southbank1871]

Lol @ Richards. Too proud to go on the England standby list, but is happy to play in this Mickey Mouse of tournament.

[Super_horns]

Lol @ Richards. Too proud to go on the England standby list, but is happy to play in this Mickey Mouse of tournament.

Will Giggs play seeing as usually he'd pull out of the Wales squad for "meaningless games"

Welsh fans don't see to be too chuffed that any of their players are selected.

[Hoop Blah]

Lol @ Richards. Too proud to go on the England standby list, but is happy to play in this Mickey Mouse of tournament.

Hopefully he'll be seeing it as a way to prove to Hodgson (via Pearce) that he can do whatever he needs him to do in order to get into the England squad.

Pleased there's no Beckham.

[blindedbythelights]

lol @ Pearce taking it seriously

[Spirit of Elm Park]

Travesty that Beckham not included. Joke squad, Joke tournament. My interest Just ended.

[cmonurz]

Fair point in the Telegraph comments section that Richards seems a ‘waste’ of a pick of an over-aged player given Walker and Kelly are under 23.

[Hoop Blah]

Fair point in the Telegraph comments section that Richards seems a ‘waste’ of a pick of an over-aged player given Walker and Kelly are under 23.

Fair point if you ignore the fact that Walker has been injured (hence missing the Euro's and is better off having a proper rest) and Kelly was in the Euro squad which automatically rules him out.

[cmonurz]

Fair point in the Telegraph comments section that Richards seems a ‘waste’ of a pick of an over-aged player given Walker and Kelly are under 23.

Fair point if you ignore the fact that Walker has been injured (hence missing the Euro's and is better off having a proper rest) and Kelly was in the Euro squad which automatically rules him out.

Didn't know that automatically ruled him out, and thought Walker was fit again.

Never mind.

Would personally have liked to have seen a Beckham swansong.

[11.30 from paddington]

Seb Coe must be doing his nut over the fact Beckham isn't selected. The football tickets are amongst the slowest sellers and as others have said, Beckham would've attracted a few more buyers.

[Hoop Blah]

It's the correct decision footballing wise though.

Why select a player who's well past his best and isn't playing as high a competitive standard as many better alternatives. To include him would be to accept that it's a commercial decision to sell tickets as opposed to make it as good a sporting contest as possible.

[Rev Algenon Stickleback H]

Seb Coe must be doing his nut over the fact Beckham isn't selected. The football tickets are amongst the slowest sellers and as others have said, Beckham would've attracted a few more buyers.

The Wembley game is already sold out, and I can't see too many Welsh being over-excited by seeing Beckham play.

I have to laugh at the idea of people being put off the whole tournament because a 37 year old over-the-hill ex-star won't be there.

[Kitsondinho]

Seb Coe must be doing his nut over the fact Beckham isn't selected. The football tickets are amongst the slowest sellers and as others have said, Beckham would've attracted a few more buyers.

The Wembley game is already sold out, and I can't see too many Welsh being over-excited by seeing Beckham play.

I have to laugh at the idea of people being put off the whole tournament because a 37 year old over-the-hill ex-star won't be there.

Sadly I know several people who have reacted in that exact way.....were going to book tickets, but now refuse to go due to what Pearce has done!! I'll still be going to the 4 games I've booked to see....I'll even enjoy a Beckhamless Team GB!

[Kitsondinho]

lol @ Pearce taking it seriously

Yeah only teams like Brazil, Argentina, Spain and Germany take it seriously.....oh hang on....

[Rev Algenon Stickleback H]

Seb Coe must be doing his nut over the fact Beckham isn't selected. The football tickets are amongst the slowest sellers and as others have said, Beckham would've attracted a few more buyers.

The Wembley game is already sold out, and I can't see too many Welsh being over-excited by seeing Beckham play.

I have to laugh at the idea of people being put off the whole tournament because a 37 year old over-the-hill ex-star won't be there.

Sadly I know several people who have reacted in that exact way.....were going to book tickets, but now refuse to go due to what Pearce has done!! I'll still be going to the 4 games I've booked to see....I'll even enjoy a Beckhamless Team GB!

On the other hand I would hope that means the 18 will include someone who is decent on the right. It would be understandable to leave him out if he'd be second choice, but rather daft if we have no replacement in that position and we play an unbalanced midfield for the sake of an extra defender.

[Stranded]

lol @ Pearce taking it seriously

Yeah only teams like Brazil, Argentina, Spain and Germany take it seriously.....oh hang on....

Only two of those have qualified though.

[Kitsondinho]

Fully aware of who has/hasn't qualified thanks....just making the point that other nations outside of GB do take the competition seriously for what it (almost) is, an under 23 WC. Obviously our problem is that we never compete in it, again for obvious reasons, so it does just seem a meaningless issue to us. I'd argue that when Messi won gold 4 years ago he was pretty chuffed about. Doubt he cares as much now, but it is seen as fairly significant tournament elsewhere....

[11.30 from paddington]

Obviously, the 'few more buyers' I was referring to were Heat magazine readers, rather than your normal match-going football fan.

[Pepe the Horseman]

When's the team officially announced then?

[Handsome Man]

There's no point having the tournament if Beckham doesn't play.

[Maguire]

Seb Coe must be doing his nut over the fact Beckham isn't selected. The football tickets are amongst the slowest sellers and as others have said, Beckham would've attracted a few more buyers.

As someone said yday - if you let Beckham play football then you might as well stick Seb Coe in the 1500m.