Britain will enter a team into the 2012 Olympic football tournament but it will only include English players after a compromise between the Scottish, Welsh, Northern Irish and English football associations.
The plan is expected to be ratified by world governing body FIFA at its annual congress next week in the Bahamas although it would also have to be rubber-stamped by the British Olympic Association, which has always sought a team open to all British players.
No British team has competed at the Olympic since 1960 but the government is determined to have one at the London Games even if it is not representative of all the nations that make up the United Kingdom.
