Campaign for a Scottish Olympic Team
[6] After the SNP's victory in the 2007 Scottish parliament elections, Salmond became First Minister and again made comments around the prospect of Scotland competing at the Olympics.There is also precedent for this in other international sporting competitions, such as the football World Cup, in which Scotland fields its own teams.Section 31.1 of the Olympic Charter states that to be considered a country, a nation must be "an independent State recognised by the international community";[8] thus, barring Scotland gaining independence from the United Kingdom, Section 31.1 of the Olympic Charter would require deletion or amendment.[9] Ahead of the 2014 referendum, an expert panel, the Working Group on Scottish Sport chaired by former First Minister Henry McLeish published their report in May.[18] The panel concluded that there was "no obvious or major barrier" to a Scottish team taking part in the 2016 Rio Olympics if the country were to vote for independence.