GB Olympic team is not on Wales’ radar – Noel Mooney | OneFootball

Wales football chief executive Noel Mooney says being part of Team GB sides at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics is “not on our radar at all”.

The British Olympic Association said after the Paris Games 12 months ago they wanted a Great Britain men’s football team competing at LA for the first time since London 2012.

Current Wales manager Craig Bellamy was among five Welshmen in Stuart Pearce’s squad who competed on home soil, with Britain ending a 52-year wait to play in an Olympic men’s football tournament.

A GB women’s team last featured at the Olympics at Tokyo 2020 when then-Wales captain Sophie Ingle was part of a 22-strong squad.

Andy Anson, the former BOA chief executive who stepped down from his role in July, said after Paris that the organisation would plan talks with the Football Associations of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to recreate a Team GB men’s football side ahead of the LA Olympics.

Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, however, have long felt that their independence in FIFA and UEFA could be jeopardised if they competed as a single entity in the Olympics.

“The Olympics is not on our radar at all, not at any level,” Football Association of Wales chief Mooney told the PA news agency.

“I’ve not heard a single word about it and never discussed it with anybody.

“We want to focus on Cymru and what we do.”

As well as the BOA facing potential opposition from the home Associations, clubs could oppose their players being released to play Olympic football during an increasingly congested calendar.

The LA Olympics officially take place from July 14-30, 2028, although the football competitions actually start two days before the opening ceremony.

The Games will begin within days of the conclusion of Euro 2028 – a tournament co-hosted by England, Scotland, Wales and the Republic of Ireland – and a few weeks before the new domestic season.

Mooney said: “That (the Olympics) is somebody else’s work I guess, but our job is to make sure we represent ourselves in the right way.

“On and off the pitch, we make sure we represent Cymru the right way. That’s our complete focus.”