why do eng, scotland, northern ireland and wales have seperate football teams?

Question

i might seem nuts to waste points by asking this question again but many political unions with devolved form of govt (the UK's official status) including UAE and USA have only a single team to represent themselves at international sporting events. as a matter of fact in sports other than football, such as rugby, cricket and hockey, northern ireland and the republic of ireland are represented by a single team (simply named ireland) despite them being 2 distinct political entities (unlike the UK i might add, which is recognised as a single political entity). any answers???????????????????????????????????

Answer 1

I can only assume the reason is one of 'Well, that's how it has always been'. When association football became an international game, each of the constituent nations of Geat Britain clearly wanted its own team - hence the separate England, Scotland, Wales teams. Ireland has always had a combined team (maybe Northern Ireland had too few players to form a decent team?)
However, I agree with the premise of your question, which is that this small island should only have one team (UK United?!). Instead of three (or four) mediocre teams, UK United might do a lot better as a single team than the four countries do separately.
If football is recognised as an Olympic sport, then they'll have to field a combined (Great Britain) team, anyway.

Answer 2

Also we (the English) invented football (that's its real name by the way) and the only other international team we could play against was Scotland which is a country that we invaded and took over before integrating it into Britain after many years, and then the others ,(wales and N Ireland followed suit) by forming national football teams.
They are all Countries that the english conquered back in the middle ages but we let them keep their national identities.

Answer 3

because we are the uk united kingdoms we are 3 seprate countrys. the usa are one country with seprate states but scotland northern island wales and egland are 3 diffrent countrys. its like saying usa and brazil should be in the same team why dont we just put all the countrys in the copa america cup in to one team ? cos that would be stupid they are not all the same country same as the uk is not just one country and seen as we have such a long history of football and compeating with eachother no one would want to join another even if it gaive them a better team there are so many players in the uk so meany people that are good enoth would not make it in to a uk team and it would not be with in the rules cos as i say for the last time the uk is not one country.

Answer 4

Same reason New York, New York, USA has the Mets and the Yankees. They just do. Also population density and economic facts and a lot of other factors such as rivalries. Makes the games more interesting.

Answer 5

no no no. northern ireland and the republic of ireland have separate teams. I'm not sure as the exact reason why the UK has 4 teams, but it may be because they are all separate kingdoms...But I don't know as a fact.

Answer 6

Yes you do seem nuts. I am Scottish and therefore British but why should I want a non Scottish player (i.e. an Englishman "Sassenach" on our team.) If they want a hodgepodge of players then you could call them "The Brits". By the way it is only polite to Capitalize the first letter of each county or is that a subtle dig?

Answer 7

Try telling the Scottish/Welsh/Irish that they have to start supporting a national team with English players in it.

Good luck.

Answer 8

Because we are separate countries..all part of the United Kingdom .

Answer 9

Don't you think each seperate country wants to feel proud enough to have their own team?

Answer 10

rite exactly... its the same in cricket... they shld b united to one common country like the uk...