Bar one, I have covered every Olympic Games since Tokyo in 1964. The one I missed was Atlanta 1996, when I was sports editing The Observer. Colleagues who were there tell me I was a good judge.

In all those Games, I have also covered every Olympic sport. Bar one.

Football.

I have never had the inclination, or been requested, to attend the Olympic football tournament. There simply has been no interest in it in this country, probably because Britain wasn't involved.

This may change next year of course when, for the first time since 1960 a Team GB - of sorts - will line up against some of the world's best under-23 players in a competition (the women's event has no age limit) in which the London organiser are finding an embarrassingly hard sell.

I can understand why. For me, Olympic football lacks substance and credibility and should not be on the Games menu.

The Olympics do not need football any more than they need equestrianism, tennis, beach volleyball or, when they debut in Rio in 2016, rugby sevens and golf.

These are sports that are cluttering up the already overcrowded Olympic theatre - in the case of rugby sevens and golf at the expense of some disciplines in worthier sports like track cycling, judo and sailing.

But that's a personal view.

As far as Olympic footy is concerned, I doubt if anyone actually cares about it other than those involved.

Can you name the current Olympic football champions without Googling? The answer is Argentina.


But even the most ardent Argentinean fan would tell you that what matters to them is not winning the Olympic tournament but the World Cup. The Olympics are a second-rate sideshow for football, just as they are for tennis and will be for golf.

However, we are stuck with them and whatever sort of football team Stuart Pearce manages to scrabble together for 2012  - whether it shapes up as GB United or more like Man United - the one certainty is that a 37-year-old David Beckham will not only be one of the three permitted overage players but will probably lead it.

While Pearce says he has a free hand over selection (though he will need to call the misplaced Anglophobic bluff of the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland FAs), there is no doubt he will be "leaned on" to pick Becks.

With 1.7 million tickets still to sell for the football competition Games organisers, the FA and the British Olympic Association (BOA) know the publicity value of such an iconic figure is immense. Moreover, I would not be surprised if Beckham is not already in pole position to be Britain's flag-bearer at the Opening Ceremony next July as a reward for his part in helping London win the bid and his current work as a global ambassador.


Lord Coe's team have been fulsome in their praise of Beckham's contribution and the BOA are certainly keen to see football play a high-profile role in a GB team's return to the Olympics after more than 60 years, if only to answer Arsène Wenger's jibe that the Games are "for track and field only". Apparently, what Wenger actually knows about the Olympics could be written on the back of an Arsenal season ticket.

What a slur on the likes of Steve Redgrave, Chris Hoy, Ben Ainslie and James DeGale. They actually won hardware, something which these days appears to be beyond the reach of Wenger.

To have Beckham leading from the front may be contentious but so is the whole question of fielding a GB team.

They say controversy sells but so far, it hasn't shifted many tickets for the 2012 football tournament.

Things may perk up if Pearce picks Beckham to play alongside Ryan Giggs and Wayne Rooney as the three overage squad members.


Sir Alex Ferguson may argue there is no way Rooney could participate in both European Championships and the Olympics next year, but why not? He may recall that Cristiano Ronaldo did precisely that in 2004.

And as for players from the other Home Nations, notably Welshmen Giggs, Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey and Scots Charlie Adam and Darren Fletcher, being intimidated by their governing bodies, let's remember that Argentina became Olympic champions in Beijing with the assistance of the great Lionel Messi, who won a legal battle against his club, Barcelona, for refusing him permission to take part.

I suggest that if any chosen Scots, Welsh or Northern Irish players - men and women - stand firm, there's nothing their governing bodies dare do about it. The phrase nose and face comes to mind if they considered banning them from future international tournaments.

I also wonder whether it would have helped had the FA not settled on an Englishman, albeit an intensely patriotic one in "Psycho" Pearce, to take charge of Team GB


Fergie was initially approached by Lord Coe but declined as he reckoned her would still be too busy with Manchester United next year. Yet wouldn't the Ulsterman Martin O'Neill, currently available, have been a greater unifying influence?

As it happens these arguments are academic, rather like the football tournament itself.

I wish Teams GB of both sexes well and that those worthy of selection get their places and enjoy the Olympic experience. But sorry, I won't be watching.

Alan Hubbard is an award-winning sports columnist for The Independent on Sunday, and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered a total of 16 Summer and Winter Olympics, 10 Commonwealth Games, several football World Cups and world title fights from Atlanta to Zaire.