Why can we not have a Team UK for the Olympics?

Welsh Assembly member Andrew R T Davies added another voice to calls for a Team GB football side for the Olympics. Davies follows compatriot Gareth Bale in calling for the Welsh FA (and the Scottish and Northern Irish FAs) to relent and allow players to join the likes of Jack Wilshire and Joe Hart at the London Games.

– from i, paper edition, 1 March 2011, p.31

I disagree with Mr Davies about this – for reasons not disimilar to those found on Welsh Ramblings – but the i then makes a glaring error. There is no ‘Northern Irish FA’. There is the Irish FA which is based at Windsor Park, Belfast. The football association in Éire is called the ‘Football Association of Ireland’.

Of course there is the other problem of Team GB – why is it Team GB – surely it should be Team UK? The name of the country is the United Kingdom. And those of us from Northern Ireland feel more than a tad left out when people use GB when they mean UK. According to Team GB’s own website:

Team GB is the Great Britain and Northern Ireland Olympic Team.

Yet we are left out, some people might think that we weren’t wanted. I’d be interested if anyone could tell me why it is not Team UK. What is the reason?