Fifa's executive committee have announced that a Great Britain team for the 2012 Olympic Games would not affect the status of the four British football associations.

The English Football Association are keen to enter a British team for the Games, but the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish are opposed to the idea.

They fear Fifa would use it as a precedent to force the four associations - and national teams of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland - to combine into one unified side representing the country.

Fifa have insisted that this would not be the case, whith a statement saying: "The executive committee confirmed that the participation in the 2012 London Olympic Games of a single team representing Great Britain would not affect the existing individual status of the four British football associations.

"The British associations will be invited to determine whether they wish for such a team to participate, and how it would be composed, with a view to presenting their proposal to the Fifa executive committee in March 2009."