Chapter 70: British Olympic Team

　　 Li Chenglong drove his cheap car and followed the navigation several times, finally found Southgate's house in the suburbs of London.
　　 When Jackie Lee was parking outside the house, Southgate opened the door and checked out.
　　 After all, it was an appointment scheduled in advance, and the other party knew he would come.
　　 "Hello, Coach Southgate." Li Chenglong first greeted him with a handshake.
　　 "Don't be so polite, Bruce, just call me Gareth."
　　 Li Chenglong followed each other into the house, and immediately saw two little girls around ten years old chasing and playing with each other in the house. The sofa pillows in the living room were thrown everywhere, and a slippers had been thrown down at Li Chenglong's feet.
　　 "Mia, Fei Lin, hurry up and tidy up the sofa, and there are guests here." Southgate yelled pretentiously, but the two little girls were not afraid of him at all, and instead rolled their eyes at him.
　　 "They are so naughty." Southgate smiled awkwardly, and had to go and clean up by himself.
　　 Soon, Southgate's wife also came out. She was a tall woman, no shorter than the 1.8-meter-old Southgate.
Before coming, Jackie Lee had deliberately learned about Southgate’s family situation. Southgate’s wife, Alison, had known each other when he was still playing in the Crystal Palace. The two quickly entered the marriage palace. It has been very good, and I have two daughters, Mia and Feline.
　　 From what I just saw, Southgate is mostly a daughter slave.
　　 Lee Chenglong sat in the living room with the Southgate family for a while, and had lunch together by the way.
　　At lunch, the two little girls who had been acquainted with Li Chenglong began to keep asking questions about the Elephant Cafe.
　　 "Is there really an elephant there?"
　　 "There is no elephant, but all the things in it are related to elephants. There are many elephant paintings on the wall, and cups and chairs are also made into elephants."
　　 "Is there a wall I can go through?"
"I confirmed, really not. The first time I went to the toilet wall there was someone writing,'This wall can go through', so I tried it, and then on my forehead in the next few days They are all carrying a big bag."
　　 "Hahaha..."
　　 "When we go to Edinburgh, we must try it ourselves."
　　 Jackie Lee’s little humor caused the two little girls to laugh. Southgate was also very happy. It worked better than the two bottles of Scotch whiskey he had just given.
　　 Elephant Cafe is located in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. It is the most famous coffee shop in Scotland. It is famous because it is the birthplace of Harry Potter.
JK Rowling wrote the Harry Potter series there. Later, with the huge success of the Harry Potter movies, the Elephant Cafe became famous, and every day there are Harry Potter fans from all over the world. To visit.
Now the Elephant Cafe has been spontaneously decorated by Harry Potter fans into a Harry Potter-themed cafe. There are a large number of Harry Potter fans’ message notes in the desk drawers and various Harry Potter walls on the corridor walls. The graffiti, and even every inch of the wall and every piece of glass in the toilet are filled with all kinds of Harry Potter-related words.
　　 The sentence Li Chenglong just said, "This wall can be passed through" was not made up by him, it was actually on the wall of the toilet there.
　　 Of course, Li Chenglong is not that stupid, he would really hit the wall with his head.
In general, the Elephant Cafe is very attractive to Harry Potter fans. The two little loli seem to be Harry Potter fans too, but Southgate has not taken them to Edinburgh to meet them. So they were very curious and kept pulling Li Chenglong to ask.
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　　 After lunch, Nanmen coach took Li Chenglong into the study.
　　 The two want to talk about some issues about the Olympic team. Of course, they can't talk in front of the family in the living room.
　　 Uh, Southgate directly translates into Chinese, that is, Southgate.
　　 So when Li Chenglong saw his surname, he couldn't help but think of Nanmen. Maybe there was some unknown connection with the Ximen family in China. Maybe their family had relatives with Ximen Qing hundreds of years ago.
　　 "Bruce, the Olympic team has not been fully built yet, mainly because there are still some problems..."
　　 After entering the study, coach Nanmen began to talk to Li Chenglong about the Olympic team, but things are not that simple.
　　 In fact, a long time ago, the United Kingdom also belonged to the National Olympic team. At that time, the British National Olympic team performed quite well, winning three Olympic championships, and tied with Hungary to become the country with the most Olympic football championships.
　　 However, for various reasons, the UK has never participated in Olympic football matches since 1960.
　　 I have not been able to participate in Olympic football before. The main difference is that FIFA does not recognize that the four major football associations in the UK can represent the UK in the Olympic Games alone.
　　 To put it simply, none of the England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland teams can represent the United Kingdom alone. The British team must be a comprehensive team.
　　 In fact, there is no separate Olympic trials in Europe, and every time the Olympic trials are conducted during the European Youth Championship.
　　 If you get a certain place in the European Youth Championship, you can automatically qualify for the Olympics and represent the European region to participate in Olympic football events.
　　England and Scotland have both qualified for the Olympics before, but they did not participate in the competition because of this difference.
　　 But for the London Olympics nowadays, the United Kingdom is also the host, so it’s a bit unreasonable to be absent.
　　 When Britain won the right to host the Olympics in 2005, then Prime Minister Tony Blair publicly stated:
As a host, it would be shameful if you don’t have a team of your own
, and he hoped that it would be a united British team.
　　 So starting in 2007, Britain has talked about the formation of the British United Nations Olympic team.
　　 It is a pity that Scotland and Northern Ireland have expressed their refusal, especially Scotland. They even said that they would never attend the meeting to discuss whether to form the British Olympic Games.
　　 Only Wales, which has always been close to England, reluctantly agreed.
　　 Things dragged on for 4 years. Until the beginning of this year, FIFA saw it dragged on. There will be no host participating in the Olympics next year, and everyone will become a laughingstock.
　　 So FIFA issued a mandatory declaration, requiring Scotland and Northern Ireland to release their people unconditionally.
　　 Under pressure from FIFA, Scotland and Northern Ireland had to give their acquiescence.
　　 But in fact, players always have to volunteer to participate, right? You can't force players to compete, right?
　　Scotland and Northern Ireland players have taken the initiative to express that even if they are selected, they cannot go. After all, they can always find a "reason" for not going.
　　 Therefore, the selection scope of the Olympic team that is currently preparing to form is actually only England and Wales.
　　 Although a bit of a misnomer, it is finally possible to form a national Olympic team.
　　 However, the British media did not let go of this opportunity, and they began to hype about who is the core team building.
　　 The views of the British media, there is no doubt that the team should be built with Beckham as the core. After all, he is the most representative figure in British football.
In fact, Beckham has long been selected as the image ambassador for the London Olympics next year~EbookFREE.me~ He will also be responsible for the torch handover and other tasks at the opening ceremony next year, and he himself publicly expressed his position in front of the media, claiming that he is very willing Representing Britain in the Olympics.
　　 Pierce, who can be the head coach of the Olympic team, is reluctant to build a team with Beckham as the core. He thinks that Beckham is old and on the verge of retirement, and he is not suitable to represent the United Kingdom again.
　　 The FA also has this vague view, they seem to support Pierce.
　　 But Pierce just vaguely stated before the media that Beckham was not suitable, and was immediately criticized by various media.
　　 Fortunately, Pierce did not directly admit not to recruit Beckham to form a team, and there is still room for change.
　　 Pierce’s real idea is actually to build a team with Gareth Bale, who is currently popular in the Premier League.
　　 Tottenham’s head coach Redknapp has already stated that Tottenham will not set up obstacles to the recruitment of Bell to the Olympic Games.
　　 But when Pierce planned to discuss with Bell himself, he couldn't even see the other person, but Bell's agent sent him away.
　　 Obviously, Bell doesn't like Olympic football at all, and he does not intend to waste energy there.
　　 So so far, the top priority of this British National Olympic team is still unclear, and the rest is a mess.
　　 "But don't worry about Bruce. Your outstanding performance that day has left a deep impression on Coach Pierce. I believe that no matter who is the core, the team will have your place."
　　 "And I also have some say in the team, I will try to help you when the time comes, after all, we are all people from Crystal Palace."
　　 Southgate's last words, it can be regarded as to make Lee Chenglong's visit today not in vain.