Scotland refuses to budge on U.K. Olympic team

Despite the fact that Scottish gaffer Sir Alex Ferguson looks set to boss a Great Britain Olympic soccer team at London 2012, Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond isn't impressed.

He has reiterated that Scotland won't play any part in an Olympic team, for fear of putting the nation's footballing identity in jeopardy.

In light of Prime Minister Gordon Brown's assertion that there should be men's and women's soccer teams playing at the Games, Salmond has dismissed his countryman's views.

Salmond roared: "The whole concept's ridiculous and only could be put forward by somebody who's seriously out of touch with Scotland. Who on earth would really want to jeopardize or sacrifice the future of Scotland as an international football country so we could have a couple of players in an under-23 team in four years' time?"

Prime Minister Brown is, as it happens, a fan of Scottish Second Division side Raith Rovers.

The latest resistance comes after Sports Minister Stewart Maxwell suggested that Scotland should have its own Olympic team, having watched cyclist Chris Hoy bag three golds in Beijing.

Maxwell told BBC Scotland: "If you look at Jamaica, its an exceptionally brilliant nation and at the same time a small nation. Scotland, too, can compete on the world stage -- we proved that. A Scottish team at the Olympics is the future."